New York, 2021-12-10 15:01:07. Taylor Swift faces copyright lawsuit over ‘Shake It Off’
LOS ANGELES — Pop star Taylor Swift must face a lawsuit from songwriters who allege the Grammy-winning singer copied her lyrics on her 2014 single “Shake It Off,” a California judge has ruled.
In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald rejected Swift’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit that she said took a version of the 2014 song “Playas Gon’ Play” by R&B girl group 3LW.
Fitzgerald said there were “some notable differences” between the songs but also “sufficient objective similarities” that the case should go to trial by jury.
“Although the defendants provided a strong closing argument to the jury, they did not show that there were no real cases of trialable facts,” the judge wrote.
A Swift spokeswoman had no comment on Friday. In 2017, its representatives described the songwriters’ claim of copyright infringement as “ridiculous” and “nothing more than money-grabbing.”
On “Shake It Off,” Swift sings: “Players will play and play and play and play and play, and haters will hate and hate and hate and hate.”
“Playas Gon’ Play,” written by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, included the phrases “Players, will play, and haters, will hate.”
Hall and Butler said the combination of playas, hat players, or haters was unique to their use in their song. The spouses are seeking unspecified damages.
Their case was dismissed in 2018, but they appealed and the case was revived.
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