Katy Perry and her record label have been ordered to pay R40 million after a court ruled her hit Dark Horse was a rip-off of Flame’s Christian rap song Joyful Noise.
The 34-year-old singer has to fork out R8 million and Capitol Records owes nearly R19 million, after a federal jury in Los Angeles found parts of Katy’s tune - which was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks in 2014 - resembled Flame’s 2008 song.
Katy’s five collaborators will also have to pay out, including producers Max Martin, who has to cough up R3.7 million, and Dr Luke’s company Kasz Money Inc owes R2.7 million, while he is ordered to nearly R900 000 personally.
Lawyers for Flame - whose real name is Marcus Gray - had sought nearly R300 million for him and his two co-writers, but were “quite pleased” with the outcome.
HAPPY: Gospel artist Flame. Picture: AP
Flame’s lawyer Michael A Kahn said in a statement: “Our clients filed this lawsuit five years ago seeking justice and fair compensation for the unauthorised taking of their valuable creation.
“It has been a long and arduous path to this day, but they are quite pleased to have received the justice they sought.”
But Katy’s lawyer Christine Lepera said the writers of Dark Horse- released on her 2013 album Prism - consider this a “travesty of justice”.C
She had argued Flame and his collaborators were trying to claim copyright for basic elements of music.
Christine told the court: “They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone.”
Katy and her six co-songwriters testified that they had never heard of Joyful Noise before.
WATCH: Katy Perry’s 2014 hit Dark Horse
However it was noted that the pop star - who is engaged to actor Orlando Bloom - started her career with gospel music.