“黑馬”訴訟:凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)唱片公司因盜用歌曲被判278萬美元

“黑馬”訴訟:凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)唱片公司因盜用歌曲被判278萬美元

Jurors decided Thursday that Katy Perry, her collaborators and her record label owe the writers of a Christian rap song $2.78 million for stealing elements of the 2009 song "Joyful Noise" for Perry's 2013 hit "Dark Horse."

周四，評審團決定，凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)、她的合作者和她的唱片公司欠一首基督教說唱歌曲的編劇278萬美元，因為他們?yōu)榕謇?013年的熱門歌曲“黑馬”(Dark Horse)竊取了2009年歌曲“快樂噪音”(Joyful Noise)的元素。

After more than a week of testimony in federal court in Los Angeles, the jurors in the copyright case decided Christian rapper Marcus Gray should get just over $550,000 from Perry, with her Capitol Records label responsible for the majority of the $2.78 million.

在洛杉磯聯(lián)邦法院進行了一周多的證詞陳述后，版權案的陪審員們決定，基督教饒舌歌手馬庫斯·格雷(Marcus Gray)應該從佩里那里得到55萬美元多一點，278萬美元中的絕大部分應該由佩里的國會唱片公司(Capitol Records)承擔。

The same jury of nine unanimously found Monday that certain beats in "Dark Horse" were improperly copied from "Joyful Noise," co-written and performed by lead plaintiff Gray, who went by the stage name Flame at the time.

由9人組成的陪審團周一一致裁定，《黑馬》中的某些節(jié)拍抄襲了首席原告格雷(Gray)與他人合寫并演唱的《歡樂的噪音》(joy Noise)。格雷當時的藝名是“火焰”(Flame)。

"Dark Horse," a hybrid of pop, trap and hip-hop sounds that was the third single from Perry's 2013 album "Prism," spent four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in early 2014. It earned Perry a Grammy Award nomination and was part of her 2015 Super Bowl halftime performance.

《Dark Horse》是佩里2013年專輯《Prism》中的第三首單曲，融合了流行音樂、陷阱音樂和嘻哈音樂。2014年初，《Dark Horse》連續(xù)四周榮登公告牌百強單曲榜榜首。這首歌為佩里贏得了格萊美獎提名，也是她2015年超級碗中場表演的一部分。

Perry was not in court for the verdict, although she appeared in court Monday, along with the song's co-authors, including producer Lukasz Gottwald (known as Dr. Luke). She offered to sing her song in the courtroom when technical snafus initially prevented lawyers from playing it.

佩里沒有出庭接受判決，不過她和包括制作人盧卡斯·戈特瓦爾德(Lukasz Gottwald)在內的這首歌的共同作者周一出庭。當技術故障最初阻止律師播放這首歌時，她主動提出在法庭上演唱這首歌。

After the first phase of the trial – was copyright law violated? – the second phase shifted to the penalty question – determining how much the Perry song had earned and how much to award to Gray and his collaborators. The two sides came up with wildly different numbers.

第一階段審判后-是否違反版權法?——第二階段轉向懲罰問題——決定佩里的歌曲賺了多少錢，以及給格雷和他的合作者們多少獎金。雙方得出的數(shù)字大相徑庭。

Lawyers for Gray and his two co-writers told the jury they should get nearly $20 million. Defense attorneys argued for about $360,000.

格雷和他的兩位合著者的律師告訴陪審團，他們應該得到將近2000萬美元。辯護律師提出的賠償金額約為36萬美元。

"These defendants have made millions and millions of dollars from their infringement of the plaintiff's copyright," Gray's attorney, Michael A. Kahn, told the jury. "They seek a fair portion of the defendants' profits. Not all of them."

這些被告通過侵犯原告的版權獲得了數(shù)以百萬計的美元，“格雷的律師邁克爾·A·卡恩(Michael A.Kahn)告訴陪審團，”他們尋求從被告的利潤中獲得公平的一部分。并不是所有。“

Lawyers for Perry and her co-defendants said the plaintiffs' demands were based on ludicrous figures. "They're not seeking fairness," the defendants' attorney, Aaron M. Wais, told the jury. "They're seeking to obtain as much money as possible."

佩里和她的共同被告的律師表示，原告的要求是基于荒謬的數(shù)字。“他們不是在尋求公平，”被告的律師亞倫·M·韋斯(Aaron M.Wais)告訴陪審團。“他們尋求獲得盡可能多的錢。”

The plaintiffs argued that Capitol Records received more than $31 million for the "Dark Horse" single and the album and concert DVD on which it appeared.

原告辯稱，Capitol Records從這首“黑馬”單曲、專輯和發(fā)行該單曲的演唱會DVD中獲得了逾3100萬美元。

An attorney for Capitol Records told jurors that expenses incurred in producing and promoting the song trimmed the label's profits to roughly $650,000. (Capitol Records is owned by Universal Music Group.)

國會唱片公司(Capitol Records)的一名律師告訴陪審員，制作和推廣這首歌的費用將唱片公司的利潤削減到了大約65萬美元。(國會山唱片公司歸環(huán)球音樂集團所有。)

Attorneys for both sides told the jury that Perry herself earned $3 million, minus $650,000 in expenses.

雙方律師告訴陪審團，佩里自己賺了300萬美元，減去65萬美元的費用。

Whatever else this trial proves, it was another glimpse into the baffling practices of entertainment accounting, in which millions are supposedly made from movies and records but profits are allegedly minuscule by comparison.

無論這場審判證明了什么，這都是對娛樂會計令人費解的做法的又一次瞥見，在這種做法中，據(jù)稱數(shù)百萬美元來自電影和唱片，但與之相比，利潤據(jù)稱微不足道。

Steve Drellishak, a vice president at Universal Music Group, testified Wednesday that it's expensive to promote a Katy Perry hit but the costs are essential to her "brand."

環(huán)球音樂集團(Universal Music Group)副總裁史蒂夫·德雷利沙克(Steve Drellishak)周三作證稱，宣傳凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)的熱門歌曲成本高昂，但成本對她的“品牌”至關重要。

Such as: More than $13,000 for a wardrobe stylist for one night. More than $3,000 for a hairdo. More than $800 for a manicure. Not to mention nearly $2,000 for flashing cocktail ice cubes.

比如:一個服裝設計師一晚的租金超過1.3萬美元。一個發(fā)型要三千多美元。修一次指甲要800多美元。更不用說近2000美元的雞尾酒冰塊了。

"She always has to be in the most fashionable clothes, the most fashionable makeup," Drellishak told the jury. "She changes her look a lot. That's core to what the Katy Perry brand is."

“她總是穿著最時尚的衣服，化著最時尚的妝，”Drellishak告訴評委。“她改變了很多造型。這是凱蒂·佩里品牌的核心。”

Drellishak said the huge marketing campaign for the album, manufacturing and digital transmission costs, employee salaries and artist royalties are among the expenses that have to be factored in.

Drellishak表示，專輯的大規(guī)模營銷活動、制作和數(shù)字傳輸成本、員工工資和藝人版稅都是必須考慮的因素。

Jurors had to get into some challenging weeds in calculating who gets what. The figures used by Capitol and the defense come partly from dividing the earnings of the album by the number of tracks on the album — 13 in the original edition, 16 in the deluxe edition.

在計算誰得到什么時，陪審員不得不進入一些具有挑戰(zhàn)性的雜草中。國會和辯方使用的數(shù)字部分來自專輯的收益除以專輯上的曲目數(shù)量-原版13首，豪華版16首。

Gray's attorneys have said that because "Dark Horse" was arguably the biggest hit on the album, the share should be bigger.

格雷的律師說，因為《黑馬》可以說是專輯中最受歡迎的歌曲，所以這個比例應該更大。

Drellishak's testimony reflected the massive digital shift the music business has undergone in recent decades, a shift that has also given singles precedence over full albums amid the short attention spans spawned by streaming.

Drellishak的證詞反映了音樂行業(yè)近幾十年來經(jīng)歷的巨大數(shù)字轉型，在流媒體帶來的短暫關注期間，這種轉型也讓單曲優(yōu)先于整張專輯。

He said "Prism" has sold 1.2 million physical copies, but "Dark Horse" has been streamed 1.89 billion times.

他說，《棱鏡》已經(jīng)售出120萬冊，但《黑馬》的播放量為18.9億次。

Jason King, a professor who specializes in pop music called by the defense, testified that the success of the song was driven primarily by the enormous star power of Perry and the marketing, neither of which involved the disputed parts of the song.

辯方請來的流行音樂教授杰森·金(Jason King)作證說，這首歌的成功主要是由佩里巨大的明星影響力和市場營銷推動的，這兩方面都沒有涉及這首歌有爭議的部分。

"Katy Perry had enormous celebrity brand value before the release of 'Dark Horse,'" said King, an associate professor at New York University. "That kind of celebrity can drive the success of a single, because the public is primed."

“在《黑馬》上映之前，凱蒂·佩里擁有巨大的名人品牌價值，”紐約大學副教授金說。“這種名人可以推動單曲的成功，因為公眾已經(jīng)做好了準備。”

Wais argued that the disputed part of "Dark Horse" was worth only 5% of its earnings.

Wais認為《黑馬》中有爭議的部分只值其收入的5%。

While copyright infringement claims are common in music, they rarely result in such losses for high-profile artists.

盡管侵犯版權的指控在音樂領域很常見，但它們很少給知名藝術家?guī)磉@樣的損失。

A jury in 2015 returned a multi-million dollar verdict against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over their 2013 hit "Blurred Lines." The judgment, which remains on appeal, was in favor of the children of Marvin Gaye, who sued alleging that "Blurred Lines" copied from their father's hit "Got to Give It Up."

2015年，陪審團對羅賓·西克(Robin Thicke)和法瑞爾·威廉姆斯(Pharrell Williams) 2013年的熱門單曲《模糊的界線》(Blurred Lines)做出了數(shù)百萬美元的判決。這一判決仍在上訴中，有利于馬文蓋伊(Marvin Gaye)的孩子們。蓋伊提起訴訟，稱抄襲父親熱門歌曲的“模糊線條”“必須放棄”。