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US Jury Orders Katy Perry to Pay $2.78 Million Over Song Copyright Violation - Report

A US jury found that Katy Perry and her record label must pay $2.78 million because the pop star's 2013 hit 'Dark Horse' - unintentionally or not - copied a Christian rap song. The jury reportedly awarded the money on Thursday to Marcus Gray and his two co-writers on the 2009 song 'Joyful Noise', AP reported.
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According to the media report, Perry was hit for just over $550,000, and Capitol Records, a division of Universal Music Group, is responsible for the vast majority of the money.

Earlier, Perry and the song's co-authors reportedly testified during the seven-day trial that none of them had heard the song or heard of Gray prior to the lawsuit.

Dark Horse spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and earned Perry a Grammy nomination, AP said.

Gray - an artist once known as 'Flame' - saw his five-year lawsuit survive constant court challenges and a trial; all against top-flight attorneys for Perry and the five other music-industry heavyweights who wrote the song, according to AP.

During the hearing, Gray's attorneys repeatedly emphasized the importance of the tens of millions of dollars brought by the song and the album. In turn, Perry's defence team continually stressed the tens of millions of dollars in expenses that were used to make and market the music, AP said.

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