Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off copyright lawsuit is thrown out by US judge

The pop-sensation came under scrutiny for the hit song
Thrown out: The judge ruled against the lawsuit
Isabel Infantes/PA
Safeeyah Kazi14 February 2018
The Weekender

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Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off copyright lawsuit has been thrown out by a US judge.

A lawsuit accusing the Look What You Made Me Do singer of stealing her lyrics for the single was thrown out on Tuesday.

The number one hit song marked the singer’s official birth as a pop artist, moving away from her country music roots.

Two songwriters, Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, had accused the singer in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles last year.

They claimed that Swift’s song was based on the phrase “players, they gonna play, and haters they gonna hate”, that they coined for a 2001 song Playas Gon’ Play by R&B girl group 3LW.

The chorus of Swift’s Shake It Off are: “The players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”

Attorneys for Swift asked U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald to dismiss the case in Janurary.

He ruled: “In order for such short phrases to be protected under the Copyright Act, they must be more creative than the lyrics at issue here.”

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The judge highlighted that the songwriters did not allege Swift’s song stole musical element.

He emphasised that phrases about 'players' and 'haters' existed in pop culture before 2001.

“In short, combining two truisms about players and haters, both well-worn notions as of 2001, is simply not enough,” the judge.

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