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St. Louis Christian Rapper Flame Wins Copyright Lawsuit Against Pop Star Katy Perry

Micah Zeller (left) is head of scholarly communication for Washington University Libraries, and Michael Kahn is senior counsel at Capes Sokol law firm in Clayton.
EVIE HEMPHILL | ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO
Micah Zeller (left) is head of scholarly communication for Washington University Libraries, and Michael Kahn is senior counsel at Capes Sokol law firm in Clayton.
Micah Zeller (left) is head of scholarly communication for Washington University Libraries, and Michael Kahn is senior counsel at Capes Sokol law firm in Clayton.
Credit EVIE HEMPHILL | ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO
Micah Zeller (left) is head of scholarly communication for Washington University Libraries, and Michael Kahn is senior counsel at Capes Sokol law firm in Clayton.

Last week, St. Louis attorney Michael Kahn won over a federal jury in a case looking at whether the Katy Perry song "Dark Horse" infringed on the copyright of a 2009 rap song “Joyful Noise” by St. Louis artist Marcus Gray, who is known as Flame. The jury decided that Katy Perry and Capitol Records must pay Gray $2.78 million in damages.

“There’s an old joke [that] when you say, ‘This is not about money, it’s about principle,’ it’s really about money,” said Kahn. “But for our clients, it was really about principle. They almost didn’t care about the money part of it. They felt that they’d been mistreated, and they wanted their day in court.”

On Thursday’sSt. Louis on the Air, Sarah Fenske discussed the case with Kahn, as well as copyright expert Micah Zeller of Washington University Libraries.

Listen to their discussion:

St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted bySarah Fenskeand produced byAlex Heuer,Emily Woodbury,Evie Hemphill,Lara HamdanandAlexis Moore. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.

Send questions and comments about this story tofeedback@stlpublicradio.org.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Emily Woodbury joined the St. Louis on the Air team in July 2019. Prior to that, she worked at Iowa Public Radio as a producer for two daily, statewide talk programs. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science. She got her start in news radio by working at her college radio station as a news director. Emily enjoys playing roller derby, working with dogs, and playing games – both video and tabletop.