Jury weighs what Katy Perry owes for hit they say she stole

Entertainment

Jury weighs what Katy Perry owes for hit they say she stole

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer

August 01, 2019 02:03 PM

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FILE – This April 27, 2019 file photo shows Katy Perry at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. The penalty phase in a copyright infringement trial will begin Tuesday, July 30, 2019, in Los Angeles and will determine how much Perry and other creators of her hit song “Dark Horse” will owe for improperly copying elements of a 2009 Christian rap song.


AP, File

Photo by Amy Harris/Invision


LOS ANGELES

Jurors will decide how much Katy Perry’s 2013 mega-hit “Dark Horse” is worth and how much of that money should go to a Christian rapper whose song they already said the pop star copied.

Attorneys for the two sides gave the jury wildly different figures to work with during closing arguments Thursday.

Lawyers for rapper Marcus Gray and his two co-writers on the 2009 song “Joyful Noise” told the jury they should get nearly $20 million from the Perry song that grossed about $41 million. Defense attorneys argued for about $360,000.

“These defendants have made millions and millions of dollars from their infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright,” Gray’s attorney, Michael A. Kahn, told the jury. “They seek a fair portion of the defendants’ profits. Not all of them.”

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Both sides agree that Perry herself made a profit of $2.4 million, which would be the maximum she may have to pay personally. The pop star testified at the beginning of the trial but has not been in court since.

Because the rhythmic instrumental riff from “Joyful Noise” plays through 45% of “Dark Horse,” Kahn said his clients were entitled to 45% of the entire earnings of Perry’s album “Prism,” where her song appears.

The defense recommends dividing the award money by the number of songs on the album.

“A CD is a CD, you can’t break it into pieces,” Kahn said. “Every album had an infringing song. And not just any song, but the most popular song on the album.”

Both sides agree that sales and streams of “Dark Horse” should be in play.

Lawyers for Perry and her co-defendants, which include Capitol Records and producer Dr. Luke, said the millions Gray seeks are based on ludicrous figures.

“They’re not seeking fairness,” the defendants’ attorney, Aaron M. Wais, told the jury. “They’re seeking to obtain as much money as possible.”

Wais argued, based on expert testimony, that the disputed part of “Dark Horse” was worth only 5% of its earnings.

He argued that the biggest driver of the song’s earnings were not any part of the song itself, but the celebrity of Perry, who was already a major star when she recorded the song.

“The reason why people buy a Katy Perry album, buy a Katy Perry song, is because it’s Katy Perry,” Wais told the jurors. “If you replaced her with an anonymous artist, do you really think it would sell as well?”

The defense also subtracted expenses of roughly $11 million that Capitol Records spent promoting and creating the song.

The plaintiffs pointed out that the expenses revealed during the trial include nearly $2,000 for flashing cocktail ice cubes and more than $13,000 for a wardrobe stylist for one night at the MTV Video Music Awards.

“Our client shouldn’t be asked to bear those costs,” Kahn said.

Wais countered that regardless of the details, the money has been legitimately spent and must be counted.

At the end of the first phase of the trial Monday, jurors surprised many by finding all six writers of “Dark Horse” were liable for copying from “Joyful Noise,” though only a section of the instrumental track was in dispute. That included Perry, who only co-wrote the lyrics to the song, and Juicy J, who only provided a rap break for it.

All the songwriters testified that they had never heard of Gray, known by the stage name Flame, or “Joyful Noise” before he and co-writers Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu sued five years ago.

But Gray and his attorney only had to prove that they had ample opportunity to have heard it.

Collectively, the songwriters earned about $10 million on the song before expenses and Capitol Records earned $31 million, leading to the plaintiffs’ $41 million figure.

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