Katy Perry and her collaborators and record label have been ordered to pay more than £2.3million for ripping off another song.
A jury decided the star’s 2013 hit Dark Horse was a copy of a Christian rap song.
A five-year lawsuit by rapper Marcus Gray, once known as Flame, survived a string of court challenges.
Perry and the five other music industry heavyweights who wrote her song brought in top-flight lawyers to fight their case.
The total payment was less than the nearly £16.5million sought by lawyers for Gray and his two co-writers on the 2009 song Joyful Noise but they said they were pleased with the decision.
Gray’s lawyer Michael A Kahn told the jury: “These defendants have made millions from their infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright.”
Perry was told to pay just over £457,000, with Capitol Records responsible for the vast majority of the money. Defence lawyers had argued for an award of about £297,000 after the jury decided Dark Horse copied Joyful Noise.
Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera said they planned to vigorously fight the decision. She said: “The writers of Dark Horse consider this a travesty of justice.”
Both sides agreed that Perry herself made a profit of £2million from the song.
Earlier, Gray’s lawyers argued it had grossed about £34million.
Because the rhythmic instrumental riff from Joyful Noise plays through 45 per cent of Dark Horse, Kahn said his clients were entitled to 45 per cent of the entire earnings of Perry’s album Prism, where her song appears.
