Copyright lawsuit filed over TAYLOR SWIFT’s ‘Shake It Off’ dismissed after 5 years

 

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 – A copyright lawsuit originally filed by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler in 2017, claiming that Taylor Swift stole lyrics from 3LW’s 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” to write her hit song “Shake It Off”, has been dismissed.

Hall and Butler had claimed that 33-year-old Swift took the “Playas gon’ play / And haters, they gon’ hate” lines they wrote to come up with “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” lyrics in her song.

The lawsuit was dismissed after attorneys for the Grammy-winning singer and the two songwriters filed a joint stipulation on Monday December 12, asking a California court to drop the lawsuit “in its entirety.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald officially dismissed the lawsuit that same day with prejudice just weeks before its trial was set to begin.

This is coming few months after Swift broke her silence on the matter, insisted she had “never heard” the song she was accused of plagiarizing.

Billboard reported that the singer said in court documents “The lyrics to ‘Shake It Off’ were written entirely by me.”

Swift also stated that the lyrics “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” were common phrases “uttered countless times.”

She said;

“In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music.”

Taylor Swift is also facing another copyright lawsuit over a book she released in 2019. Author Teresa La Dart sued Swift in August for more than a million dollars, claiming that she copied her poetry book, “Lover,” for the companion booklet for Swift’s “Lover” album.