A 2017 copyright infringement lawsuit against Taylor Swift has been dismissed. The suit, which alleged that Swift stole the lyrics to her 1989 single "Shake It Off" from girl group 3LW's "Playas Gon' Play" was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the plaintiffs — songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler — can't refile the same complaint in the same court.
The case was set to go to trial in January 2023. In the original complaint, Hall and Butler alleged that the lyrics "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" copied lines that they'd written — "Playas, they gonna play/And haters, they gonna hate" — for 3LW's 2001 single.
Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the case in 2018, saying that the lyrics in question were "too brief, unoriginal, and uncreative to warrant protection under the Copyright Act." The case was then revived in a 2019 appeals court.
"The lyrics to 'Shake It Off' were written entirely by me," Swift wrote in a sworn declaration earlier this year in regards to the suit. "Until learning about plaintiffs' claim in 2017, I had never heard the song 'Playas Gon' Play' and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW."
The case was set to go to trial in January 2023. In the original complaint, Hall and Butler alleged that the lyrics "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" copied lines that they'd written — "Playas, they gonna play/And haters, they gonna hate" — for 3LW's 2001 single.
Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the case in 2018, saying that the lyrics in question were "too brief, unoriginal, and uncreative to warrant protection under the Copyright Act." The case was then revived in a 2019 appeals court.
"The lyrics to 'Shake It Off' were written entirely by me," Swift wrote in a sworn declaration earlier this year in regards to the suit. "Until learning about plaintiffs' claim in 2017, I had never heard the song 'Playas Gon' Play' and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW."