Christian rapper Flame loses appeal in copyright lawsuit against pop singer Katy Perry

Music

Mar 12

Katy Perry wins appeal in copyright lawsuit against Christian rapper Flame (EEW)

By Rebecca Johnson // Music // EEW Magazine Online

A federal appeals court ruled in pop singer Katy Perry’s favor—again— in the ongoing “Dark Horse” copyright lawsuit with Christian rapper Marcus Gray.

GRAMMY® nominated and Stellar Award-winning Gray, who is best known by his stage name Flame, first sued Perry in 2014, saying her hit “Dark Horse” was much too similar to his song “Joyful Noise.” In 2019,

Gray won the case, when a Los Angeles jury found Perry guilty of infringement and awarded the Christian lyricist $2.8 million in damages.

Katy Perry in “Dark Horse” video (Capitol Records)

However, his victory was short-lived.

The verdict was overturned a year later, when in a new decision, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled that none of the individual elements that comprised the eight-note musical phrase known as an “ostinato” in “Joyful Noise” is “independently protectable” under copyright law, nor is the specific combination of them in his song.

Therefore, the judge ultimately ruled that the “ostinato” which Perry had allegedly copied lacked the “quantum of originality” to merit any legal copyright protection.

Not one to give up so easily, Gray appealed the decision in October 2020, writing in a brief about what he viewed as the incriminating similarity of sound between the songs while also arguing against the musicologists’ use of databases of melodies to determine instances of similarities in previous works.

On March 10, 2022, the Ninth Circuit failed, again, to rule in his favor, upholding the District Court’s overturning of the initial jury verdict.

Perry’s win in 2020 served as an example of a rare occasion when a court overturns a jury verdict in a copyright infringement case. That same year, Led Zeppelin defeated plaintiff Michael Skidmore over a factually similar suit over “Stairway to Heaven.”

Since the notorious “Blurred Lines” case — where a court found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had indeed infringed upon Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” with their 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” — musical artists have been much more hesitant to take copyright disputes before a jury, often choosing to settle out of court.

Though Gray, who has released 9 albums to date—most recently his Christ For You EP— currently occupies a position of defeat in this case, if the rapper is in any way sulking about the loss, it’s hard to tell on social media.

He uploaded a pleasant photograph of himself Saturday, captioning it, “What’s something you thank God for? I’m thanking God for a lot of good memories. I like how you can recall an event from the past and experience a smile or laugh in the present. Pretty cool.”