Katy Perry told to pay $550k to Christian rapper Flame - BBC News

Katy Perry has been ordered to pay a Christian rapper $550,000 (£454,000) of her own earnings from her 2013 song Dark Horse by a US court.

That amount is a part of the $2.7m (£2.2m) awarded to gospel artist Flame, who has successfully sued the star for copying one of his songs.

Her label, Capitol Records, will have to pay most of the total amount.

The singer's legal team say they plan to appeal, if the case is not dismissed pending a defence motion.

Earlier this week, a US court found Katy, her producers and songwriters guilty of copyright infringement.

'A travesty of justice'

Lawyers representing Flame claimed that Katy and her team had "copied an important part" of his song, at the conclusion of legal proceedings that started in 2014.

The argument was over a musical part of Dark Horse's production - but Katy and the people who wrote the lyrics for the track were also found liable.

"The writers of Dark Horse consider this a travesty of justice," said Katy's attorney Christine Lepera outside court.

Attorneys for Capitol Records told the court the label earned $31m (£26m) from Dark Horse, but after costs only made a profit of $630,000 (£520,000).

'Defendants made millions'

The amount awarded is just a fraction of what Flame - real name Marcus Gray - was hoping to win from Katy.

His lawyers had argued that he was owed $20m (£17m).

"These defendants made millions and millions of dollars from their infringement of the plaintiffs' song," Flame's attorney Michael Kahn said in court.

Here's Katy's song, Dark Horse:

And here's Flame's song, Joyful Noise:

Katy had said, when she gave evidence during the trial, that she had never heard Joyful Noise before recording her hit with producers Dr Luke, Max Martin and Cirkut.

She also offered to sing Dark Horse to the court when a speaker system broke and it wasn't possible to play the song for the jury.

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