The verdict is in, and it was determined FLAME and his team won the nearly 5 year legal battle against Katy Perry. It was reached that the beat to Perry’s smash hit “Dark Horse” “improperly copied” FLAME’s track “Joyful Noise.”

According to Billboard, the song’s collaborators Lukasz Gottwald (Dr. Luke), Karl Martin Sandberg (Max Martin), Henry Walter (Cirkut), Sarah Hudson, and Jordan Michael Houston (Juicy J), Capitol Records, Warner Bros. Music Corporation, Kobalt Publishing, and Kasz Money Inc are all liable.

It took seven days for the jury to deliberate and come to their decision. FLAME and his team argued that the song was popular enough for Perry and company to have heard it despite their denial. They also had a musicologist breakdown the beat and explain the similarities. Perry’s defense team brought in their own expert who refuted these claims. Another tactic of the plaintiff was using Perry’s former background as a Christian singer as well as having pastors for parents as a reason she would have heard the song.

On Tuesday (July 30th, 2019), the settlement will be reached.

Here’s a refresher of the whole case and some of the timeline:

In 2007 FLAME released a song called “Joyful Noise” featuring Lecrae. In 2013 Katy Perry dropped her smash single “Dark Horse” featuring Juicy J.

FLAME and his team alleged that their song was ripped off by Perry and co-creator, Dr. Luke. The songs have very similar and at points identical sounding beats.

“Defendants never sought or obtained permission from plaintiffs to use the ‘Joyful Noise’ song in creating, reproducing, recording, distributing, selling, or publicly performing defendants’ song,” the complaint states. “Plaintiffs never gave any of the defendants permission, consent, or a license to use ‘Joyful Noise’ for any purpose, including creation of a derivative work based on ‘Joyful Noise.’”

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