Katy Perry's lawyer calls Dark Horse copyright verdict 'a travesty of justice'

Pop star and her label have been ordered to $2.78 million in damages after a jury decided her song copied the underlying beat of a 2008 track by Christian rapper Flame

(AFP/Getty Images)

Katy Perry’s lawyer has said the pop star and her collaborators view the verdict on their recent copyright trial a “travesty of justice”.

The pop star and her label have been ordered to pay a total of $2.78 million (£2.29m) in damages after a jury decided that her 2013 hit “Dark Horse” copied the underlying beat of Christian rapper Flame’s 2008 song “Joyful Noise”.

“The writers of ‘Dark Horse’ view the verdicts as a travesty of justice,” began a statement issued by Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera on Friday 2 August. “There is no infringement There was no access or substantial similarity.”

In the statement, Lepera asserted that “the only thing in common [between ‘Dark Horse’ and ‘Joyful Noise’] is unprotectable expression – evenly spaced ‘C’ and ‘B’ notes – repeated. People including musicologists from all over are expressing their dismay over this.”

The verdict has prompted artists and music experts to express concern over the legal precedent this case will set for future copyright claims – especially after Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were told to pay damages to the Marvin Gaye estate over perceived similarities between their hit “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up”.

Charlie Harding, host of the Vox pop music analysis podcast Switched on Pop, pointed out that both songs use descending minor scales in a basic rhythm, one which is common to many trap beats.

“No one should be able to own these core building blocks for the good of all past, present and future art,” he said.

“Katy Perry got robbed by a musically ignorant jury,” Paul Croteau – a Texas-based composer who has created music for shows such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians and American Greed – said in an Instagram post.

He wrote, “Different key and tempo, different notes and DIFFERENT BEAT! Trap music is repetitive and in minor keys. The grooves are similar, yes. A copy? No.”

“They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone,” Lepera said in her closing arguments, via Associated Press.