Taylor Swift ‘Shake It Off’ Copyright Lawsuit Can Proceed, Judge Rules

September 3, 2020 8:06pm

A Los Angeles federal court judge has decided that two songwriters who claim their lyrics were pilfered by Taylor Swift for her massive 2014 hit Shake It Off may have a case.

US District Judge Michael Fitzgerald said that songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler “have sufficiently alleged a protectable selection and arrangement or a sequence of creative expression” and Swift’s “use as alleged is similar enough” to survive the motion to dismiss.

Hall and Butler filed suit in 2017, saying the 2001 3LW recording Playas Gon’ Play, was the source of Swift’s lyrics on her Shake It Off.

The 3LW song includes the lyrics “Playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.”

Swift’s song has the lyrics: “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”

Fitzgerald dismissed the Hall and Butler claim in 2017. He said then that their lyrics lacked sufficient originality to merit copyright protection. An appeals court overturned his decision the following year.

Hall and Butler are seeking a share of the profits from Swift’s song, which sold more than 9 million copies as of the filing date.

Swift’s representatives have disputed the Hall and Butler contentions, calling it “a money grab.”