“黑马”诉讼:凯蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)唱片公司因盗用歌曲被判278万美元

“黑马”诉讼:凯蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)唱片公司因盗用歌曲被判278万美元

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，评审团决定，凯蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)、她的合作者和她的唱片公司欠一首基督教说唱歌曲的编剧278万美元，因为他们为佩里2013年的热门歌曲“黑马”(Dark Horse)窃取了2009年歌曲“快乐噪音”(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.

在洛杉矶联邦法院进行了一周多的证词陈述后，版权案的陪审员们决定，基督教饶舌歌手马库斯·格雷(Marcus Gray)应该从佩里那里得到55万美元多一点，278万美元中的绝大部分应该由佩里的国会唱片公司(Capitol Records)承担。

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人组成的陪审团周一一致裁定，《黑马》中的某些节拍抄袭了首席原告格雷(Gray)与他人合写并演唱的《欢乐的噪音》(joy Noise)。格雷当时的艺名是“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年专辑《Prism》中的第三首单曲，融合了流行音乐、陷阱音乐和嘻哈音乐。2014年初，《Dark Horse》连续四周荣登公告牌百强单曲榜榜首。这首歌为佩里赢得了格莱美奖提名，也是她2015年超级碗中场表演的一部分。

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.

佩里没有出庭接受判决，不过她和包括制作人卢卡斯·戈特瓦尔德(Lukasz Gottwald)在内的这首歌的共同作者周一出庭。当技术故障最初阻止律师播放这首歌时，她主动提出在法庭上演唱这首歌。

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.

第一阶段审判后-是否违反版权法?——第二阶段转向惩罚问题——决定佩里的歌曲赚了多少钱，以及给格雷和他的合作者们多少奖金。双方得出的数字大相径庭。

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

格雷和他的两位合著者的律师告诉陪审团，他们应该得到将近2000万美元。辩护律师提出的赔偿金额约为36万美元。

"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."

这些被告通过侵犯原告的版权获得了数以百万计的美元，“格雷的律师迈克尔·A·卡恩(Michael A.Kahn)告诉陪审团，”他们寻求从被告的利润中获得公平的一部分。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师表示，原告的要求是基于荒谬的数字。“他们不是在寻求公平，”被告的律师亚伦·M·韦斯(Aaron M.Wais)告诉陪审团。“他们寻求获得尽可能多的钱。”

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.

原告辩称，Capitol Records从这首“黑马”单曲、专辑和发行该单曲的演唱会DVD中获得了逾3100万美元。

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.)

国会唱片公司(Capitol Records)的一名律师告诉陪审员，制作和推广这首歌的费用将唱片公司的利润削减到了大约65万美元。(国会山唱片公司归环球音乐集团所有。)

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

双方律师告诉陪审团，佩里自己赚了300万美元，减去65万美元的费用。

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.

无论这场审判证明了什么，这都是对娱乐会计令人费解的做法的又一次瞥见，在这种做法中，据称数百万美元来自电影和唱片，但与之相比，利润据称微不足道。

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."

环球音乐集团(Universal Music Group)副总裁史蒂夫·德雷利沙克(Steve Drellishak)周三作证称，宣传凯蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)的热门歌曲成本高昂，但成本对她的“品牌”至关重要。

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:一个服装设计师一晚的租金超过1.3万美元。一个发型要三千多美元。修一次指甲要800多美元。更不用说近2000美元的鸡尾酒冰块了。

"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."

“她总是穿着最时尚的衣服，化着最时尚的妆，”Drellishak告诉评委。“她改变了很多造型。这是凯蒂·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，专辑的大规模营销活动、制作和数字传输成本、员工工资和艺人版税都是必须考虑的因素。

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.

在计算谁得到什么时，陪审员不得不进入一些具有挑战性的杂草中。国会和辩方使用的数字部分来自专辑的收益除以专辑上的曲目数量-原版13首，豪华版16首。

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

格雷的律师说，因为《黑马》可以说是专辑中最受欢迎的歌曲，所以这个比例应该更大。

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的证词反映了音乐行业近几十年来经历的巨大数字转型，在流媒体带来的短暂关注期间，这种转型也让单曲优先于整张专辑。

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

他说，《棱镜》已经售出120万册，但《黑马》的播放量为18.9亿次。

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.

辩方请来的流行音乐教授杰森·金(Jason King)作证说，这首歌的成功主要是由佩里巨大的明星影响力和市场营销推动的，这两方面都没有涉及这首歌有争议的部分。

"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《黑马》上映之前，凯蒂·佩里拥有巨大的名人品牌价值，”纽约大学副教授金说。“这种名人可以推动单曲的成功，因为公众已经做好了准备。”

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

Wais认为《黑马》中有争议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.

尽管侵犯版权的指控在音乐领域很常见，但它们很少给知名艺术家带来这样的损失。

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，陪审团对罗宾·西克(Robin Thicke)和法瑞尔·威廉姆斯(Pharrell Williams) 2013年的热门单曲《模糊的界线》(Blurred Lines)做出了数百万美元的判决。这一判决仍在上诉中，有利于马文盖伊(Marvin Gaye)的孩子们。盖伊提起诉讼，称抄袭父亲热门歌曲的“模糊线条”“必须放弃”。