By Andrew Dalton, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --A federal judge in Los Angeles handed a major victory to Katy Perry on Tuesday, overturning a jury's verdict that found the pop superstar and her collaborators copied her 2013 hit "Dark Horse" from a 2009 Christian rap song.
U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said in her decision that the disputed section of the rap song, "Joyful Noise" by rapper Marcus Gray was not distinctive enough to be protected by copyright as the jury found.
"It is undisputed in this case, even viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, that the signature elements of the eight-note ostinato in 'Joyful Noise' is not a particularly unique or rare combination," Snyder wrote in her decision.
The plaintiffs plan to appeal.
"When the jurors returned a unanimous verdict of infringement, I cautioned my clients that we had only finished Round 11 of a 15-round match and that the next round would take place in the court of appeals," Gray's attorney Michael A. Kahn said in an email to the Associated Press, referencing the numerous pre-trial rulings in his client's favor. "We believe the jury was right and will do our best to restore their verdict on appeal."
The jury in August had awarded Gray and his co-writers $2.78 million from Perry and her songwriting partners, Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Circuit.
Perry, who testified at trial and jokingly offered to perform the song live when the recording had technical difficulties, had been personally ordered to pay $550,000.
Gray, a native of St. Louis who went by the stage name Flame, first sued Perry in 2014, the year "Dark Horse" spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100.
Perry and her and her co-writers all testified that they had never before heard "Joyful Noise."
The award had fallen far short of the $20 million the plaintiffs had sought, and is not a huge amount for stars of the caliber of Perry or the hitmaking producer Dr. Luke, but her attorney Christine Lepera called the verdict a "travesty of justice" that would have a chilling effect on creativity.
Lepera did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the overturned verdict.
The judgment comes a week after another federal court in California handed a similar victory to Led Zeppelin, ruling that a new trial was not called for in the legal fight over their 1971 classic "Stairway to Heaven," and that a jury's ruling in the band's favor should stand.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More