Katy Perry's Lawyers Request Retrial in 'Dark Horse' Copyright Case

Pop songstress Katy Perry and the co-writers of Perry's hit song "Dark Horse" are demanding a retrial in the copyright infringement case. Last July, Perry,  Dr. Lucas Y Max Martin, were found guilty of sliding segments of Christian rapper Marcus Gray's (also known as Flame) song "Joyful Noise." The court ordered Perry and her co-writers to pay $ 2.78 million.

However, defense lawyers have described the decision as "a parody of justice" and claim that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy the extrinsic and intrinsic evidence of "substantial similarity" between the two tracks.

"No amount of rhetoric can alter the record of the probationary trial, or how that record should have been measured under the appropriate burden of evidence and legal standards of access and substantial similarity consistent with the instructions given," the motion, filed December 27 in The United States District Court in California reads.

"There is only one result that matches the legal standards applied to this evidence record: the plaintiffs did not prove any copyright infringement as a matter of law."

Although a new trial is mentioned as an option, the defense is asking Judge Christina A. Snyder to dismiss the jury's decision completely, insisting that "no reasonable jury following those instructions" could have decided in favor of the plaintiffs. .

The filing comes in direct response to the plaintiff's opposition filing in November, which countered the previous motion of defense appeal. Earlier, the defense said that one of the plaintiffs' witnesses, musicologist Dr. Todd Tecker, "gave an inappropriate and very damaging testimony." 

 

 

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