Remember Katy Perry’s suuuuuper hit bop Dark Horse that was on the top of like, all the music charts of 2013? Well, we’d lived through the song, fab video too, and then we’d moved on to Katy’s newer music (shoutout to Con Calma).
Until we heard of Dark Horse again recently and it wasn’t good news. An artist, Flame, apparently accused Katy of copying his original Joyful Noise for Dark Horse. So clearly, it wasn’t all amazing in paradise…
So here’s the basic lowdown – a copyright infringement case was suddenly all over Katy and co., and after a week-long trial, the jury ruled in favour of Flame and his work. Which is obvs bad news for Katy, particularly because Tuesday onward, the trial will focus on the damages she and her co-producers owe.
Well, in Katy’s defense she said that the only thing Joyful Noise and Dark Horse had in common was some basic beats which weren’t copyright protected anyway. But clearly the defense wasn’t strong enough.
After cases like Dark Horse and Blurred Lines, creative boundaries are pretty hard to figure out rn.