Back in July 2014, Katy Perry was sued by a rapper named Marcus Gray, who alleged that the pop singer copied his song “Joyful Noise” in her 2013 hit “Dark Horse.” Jurors initially sided with Gray, who performs under the name Flame, but in 2020 a judge overturned the verdict (citing the monumental “Stairway To Heaven” copyright ruling), maintaining that Perry’s “ostinato” (a short series of notes repeated through a song) was too simple justify copyright protection. Now, a federal appeals court has refused to reinstate the 2.8 million verdict against Perry, deciding that the two tracks only share basic “building blocks.”