Rapper urges court to ignore 'friends of Katy Perry' brief
The Christian rapper at the heart of the “Dark Horse” copyright clash is attempting to bar the submission of an amicus brief by a group of musicologists, which he claims is “unabashedly partisan” to Katy Perry’s arguments.
In a filing submitted yesterday, January 8, rapper Marcus Gray opposed a group of musicologists’ attempt to submit a brief that is “highly prejudicial to plaintiffs” in the $2.8 million copyright dispute.
Last summer, a jury at the US District Court for the Central District of California concluded that Perry’s “Dark Horse” copied elements of Gray’s 2008 song “Joyful Noise” and awarded the rapper almost $3 million in damages.
Responding to the decision, Perry claimed she had suffered a “grave miscarriage of justice” and that “no reasonable” jury could have found in Gray’s favour.
In the latest round, Perry’s attorneys argued that, failing summary judgment, the court should “at a minimum” grant a new trial as the jury’s findings were “against the clear weight of the evidence”.
According to Perry’s team, the court now has an opportunity to “draw the line between the permissible use of commonplace and unprotectable expression in musical compositions, and copyright infringement”.
But, earlier this week, Gray’s team hit out at a group of 15 musicologists that are seeking leave to file an amicus brief, which sides with Perry.
“While the movants present themselves as ‘friends of the court’, the more accurate term is ‘friends of the defendants’. Neither the movants nor their proposed brief—which is deficient or improper in several respects—meets the legal standard required to appear as an amicus,” said Gray.
In addition to “merely” restating and rearguing a portion of Perry’s arguments, the brief allegedly only contains arguments that are speculative and not supported by either the trial record or admissible evidence.
“Here, the movants have crossed that red line of neutrality through their one-sided account of the trial evidence, which includes adopting defendants’ inaccurate version of the record—a version plaintiffs have challenged in their briefing, which preceded but was ignored by the movants’ filing,” added Gray.
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