Katy Perry Wins The Christian Rap Plagiarism Lawsuit

In October, Katy Perry, Lukasz “Dr Luke” Gottwald, Capitol Records, and others filed an appeal seeking to overturn or retry a ruling which claimed that Perry’s “Dark Horse” plagiarized Flame’s 2009 Christian rap single “Joyful Noise.” 

Finally, a judge has wiped out the earlier $2.8 million jury judgement against Perry and her associates. 

During the trial, Katy Perry and Dr Luke had claimed that they had not heard the song "Joyful Noise" before. The appeal from the pop singer and the rest called the jury verdict “legally unsupportable” and “a grave miscarriage of justice.”

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder cited analysis from musicologist Todd Decker. She ruled that the eight-note element at the root of the plagiarism charge was “not a particularly unique or rare combination,” and therefore not a “protectable expression.”