US judge dismisses copyright lawsuit over Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’

A Federal judge in California has green-lighted the dismissal of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against Taylor Swift over her 2014 smash hit ‘Shake It Off’.

The songwriting duo of Sean Hall and Nathan Butler alleged that it had similarities to their song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’ which they wrote for the US girl group 3LW and released as a single in May 2001 from their debut album.

It charted in the US, UK, Scotland and New Zealand.

Hall and Butler said that the lyrics of their song was “Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate.”

The chorus of the Swift song went: “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”

But US district Judge Michael Fitzgerald found that the phrases in question were already “well-worn” in R&B and pop culture by that time, and hence there was nothing unique about the 3LW song’s lyrics.

He wrote: “The lynchpin of this entire case is thus whether or not the lyrics ‘Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate’ are eligible for protection under the Copyright Act.

“[B]y 2001, American popular culture was heavily steeped in the concepts of players, haters, and player haters…

“The concept of actors acting in accordance with their essential nature is not at all creative; it is banal.”

“The allegedly infringed lyrics are short phrases that lack the modicum of originality and creativity required for copyright protection.”

Judge Fitzgerald granted Swift’s move to have the case dismissed.

He told Hall and Butler he would allow them to amend their complaint with more cited similarities by February 26.

But he was “extremely sceptical” that they could.

A spokesperson for Swift had earlier called the lawsuit “a ridiculous claim and nothing more than a money grab”.

In November 2015, R&B singer Jesse Graham sued Swift for $42 million claiming she stole lines from his song ‘Haters Gonna Hate’.

He insisted her song used his hook and that there would be no ‘Shake It Off’ if "I hadn’t written ‘Haters Gonna Hate’."

That lawsuit was dismissed by United States district court Judge Gail Standish.

Swift wrote ‘Shake It Off’ with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback, who also produced the track.

It debuted at #1 in America (her second chart topper there) where in its first week it sold 545,000 units and streamed 18.4 million times.

It stayed in the US Hot 100 for 50 consecutive weeks, and was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2015 Grammys.

In Australia ‘Shake It Off’ was her second #1 single (after 2009’s ‘Love Story’) and stayed on the top for three weeks.

It was certified  7x platinum for sales of close to half a million and was the third biggest selling single in Australia that year.

Of the 32 countries it charted in, it also reached #1 in New Zealand, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, and Poland.