14 DAY TRIAL // A group of hip-hop singers from Saint Louis have gone all out in a legal battle with Katy Perry and her label, Capitol Records, since they think that the pop musician has infringed copyright for a song they wrote back in 2008.
The lawsuit has already been filed in federal court, according to Saint Louis Today, and in it, it's claimed that the song “Dark Horse” plagiarizes the Christian song under the name of “Joyful Noise.” The offended party demand that they be reimbursed for the profit earned from their song and claim they've been exploited.
In the lawsuit, the singers allege that comparisons between the two songs first “percolated” online in several sources and gained enough momentum to reach the musicians' ears. When it was brought to their attention, they decided it was proof enough to take legal action.
That would explain why it has taken the offended party so long to realize the song was copied after one of theirs, since “Dark Horse” has been released at the beginning of the year, so it's at least several months old. During that time, it has received a lot of airplay, as well as being part of Katy Perry's current Prismatic World Tour.
The musicians involved in the lawsuit are Flame, real name Marcus Gray, and Chike Ojukwu, together with Lacrae Moore and Emanuel Lambert.