An appeals court ruled on Thursday (March 11) that Katy Perry did not plagiarize her hit song “Dark Horse” and that her team was not liable to pay Christian rapper Flame for damages related to copyright infringement.
As reported by Variety, Flame, real name Marcus Gray, had accused Perry of stealing an eight-note musical pattern from his 2008 song “Joyful Noise” and using it on her 2013 Juicy-J assisted hit. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted in a 3-0 decision that Gray did not deserve damages over the claim.
The latest ruling comes after a 2019 jury initially found Perry guilty of copyright infringement, and ordered she and her team pay Gray $2.78 million in damages. The verdict was then overturned in 2020 by Los Angeles Judge Christina Snyder, who claimed the “signature elements of the eight-note ostinato” in “Joyful Noise” weren’t complex enough to warrant copyright protection. Gray then appealed the decision in 2020, sending it to the Court of Appeals who upheld Snyder’s conviction.
Gray’s attorney Michael A. Kahn told Billboard he was looking at options for him and his client, though it remains unlikely the case will go to the Supreme Court.
“The notion that this simple, original, and clearly distinctive 8-note melody can’t be protected by copyright runs contrary to a series of simple and clearly distinctive 8-note opening melodies, including Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five,’ The Rolling Stones’ ‘Satisfaction,’ and, of course, the 8-note opening to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony,” Kahn told the publication. “We are considering our options.”
Revisit 2013’s “Dark Horse” featuring Juicy J below, and check out Flame’s “Joyful Noise” for comparison.
300million hahaha.
Im not seeing enough similarity in the sounds of the music. I dont agree with these type of lawsuits. Nobody is losing money. These are two completely different and unrelated markets. Even if the beat was similar enough, bottom line is the original user failed to lace it with hot lyrics and make a hit. Not the second users fault your shit didnt hit.
The song was a hit in it’s sub-genre just wasn’t a mainstream hit. But not many Christian rappers have mainstream hits
Jesus fucking Christ. This is at least the third time that I’m informing your staff that you’ve written erroneous information. The title says Flame was awarded $300 million, but the article only states less than $3 million.
I used to work for your parent company, Warner Music Group, as an attorney and the shit that y’all are doing is going to get you all sued for libel eventually. Do you not even bother to proofread your articles? At least put some damn effort in.
I contact the uppers about this type of fake journalism all the time but they do nothing and continue to allow them to keep clickbaiting smh
Atleast he did the good Christian thing and sued somebody for using 8 notes from a song nobody has heard.
Yep and lost in the most gay non-christian city in America San Fran….lol…Then before that loss a LA judge overturned the guilty copyright judgement in 2019, and we all know LA is just as gay. lol
Ofr course the j0oish lawyers beat the dude, small hats hate christians. That’s why the small hats are behind ISIS etc isIamic fundamentalist stooges that go around bombing christians. Jo0s hate christianity, they worship in the synagogue of satan after all
Can you try this again in English, please?
$300,000,000 is a LOT more than $2,780,000. The only reason I clicked on the article because I thought “that’s crazy. He got $300M?” So are you guys horrible at math, bad at editing or purposely misleading your readers with click bait?
Everything is turning into clickbait and its sad
I sound more like this Jesus dude Flame’s should be paying Mims $300M for taking “this i why i am hot” drum patern, rap flow ect.
Flame’s Just looking for a pay-day. Fake a×× rapper. Do some thing original Flame’s and then you can speak on it haha??.
Flame music is hot! It was just the Christian Rap I needed to replace the worldly Rap I was listening to in High School. Artists like T-Pain, DJ Khaled, Akon, and more. No hate towards them, I would jam them if they were Christian Rappers, but I didn’t like the worldly message, just the sound. So finding a Christian artist that had an alternative and similar sound was perfect for me. And you could call it copycat or whatever but there is unique and original material by Flame. Also I think Flame is a real one, maybe his lawsuit wasn’t the best move, but I believe in a way any exposure for his music is a win even if it’s negative because now people know him and maybe people who hate him now will give him a chance later. Like I believe Romans 8:28 all things work together. And look how far Christian Rap has come with Lecrae and Andy Mineo. It might be a matter of time before Katy does a song with Nf, Lauren Daigle, and Flame! Like NF already did a song with Flame. And people always say Lauren sounds like Katy, it would be perfect! Then throw Wocka Flocka Flame and Lecrae in and it’s perfect!
Notice the i11uminati symbolism in the Katy Perry video thumbnail; the eye of Horus.
Praise Jesus! Flame you’re a LOOOOOOOOOSER
When christians start suing shit got real lol??♂️ aren’t you supposed to turn the other cheek
We should offer other cheek, but we also shouldn’t be push overs. Bible says there is a time for peace and time for war. I think maybe he honestly felt the potential fame of his song was being stolen by a an artist with a negative or Satanic influenced message so that’s why he went after it in his zeal. Was he right or wrong? I don’t know and can’t say. It’s his walk with God and his own conviction. Even though he brought negative attention to himself with the lawsuit, I pray it’s redeemed (or turned around for food by God’s grace and mercy according to Romans 8:28) by people being exposed to him, his music, and they will not let their first impression be forever tainted, but give him and his music a chance. I mean people love NF and Flame has a song with him called Start Over, so from that they should love the guy. At least that’s my opinion.
I meant turn around for good. Not food. Stupid autocorrect, sucks that I can’t edit that out. Oh well.