It was an underdog victory for rapper Marcus Gray, a relatively obscure artist once known as Flame whose five-year-old lawsuit survived constant court challenges and a trial against top-flight lawyers for Perry and the five other music-industry heavyweights who wrote her song.
The amount was less than the nearly 20 million dollars (£16.5 million) sought by lawyers for Gray and his two co-writers on the 2009 song Joyful Noise, but they said they were pleased with the decision.
“These defendants have made millions and millions of dollars from their infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright,” Gray’s lawyer Michael A Kahn told the jury.
Perry herself was hit for just over 550,000 dollars (£457,000), with Capitol Records responsible for the vast majority of the money.
Defence lawyers had argued for an award of about 360,000 dollars (£297,000) after the jury decided earlier this week that Dark Horse copied Joyful Noise.
Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera said they planned to vigorously fight the decision.
“The writers of Dark Horse consider this a travesty of justice,” she said.
Both sides agree that Perry herself made a profit of 2.4 million dollars (£2 million), while Gray’s lawyers argued that her song had grossed about 41 million dollars (£34 million). The pop star testified at the beginning of the trial but has not been in court since.
Because the rhythmic…
… Read More
—
Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.