Taylor Swift Wants ‘Shake It Off’ Lawsuit Dismissed

By Corey Atad. Published: 4 Jan 2018 8:49 AM

Photo: Isabel Infantes/PA Wire

Taylor Swift is fighting back against a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement over her smash hit “Shake it Off”.

The Wrap reports the 28-year-old singer asked Wednesday that a judge dismiss the suit by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler.

Filing their suit in September, the songwriters allege that “Shake It Off” infringes upon their 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” performed by girl group 3Lw.

According to the suit, the “Shake it Off” chorus lyrics “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” copied the “Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate” lyrics from “Playas Gon’ Play”.

Swift’s legal team have pushed back on the claims of infringement, saying that the phrases allegedly infringing are in fact not possible to copyright.

“Plaintiffs admit that words such as players will play and haters will hate — which are simply nouns and their corresponding verbs — are not protected by copyright,” Swift’s lawyers said in their court filing. “Instead, plaintiffs allege that they are the first to combine players will play and haters will hate into the short phrase ‘playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate,’ and that — while anyone can say, e.g., players are going to play or haters are going to hate — plaintiffs’ claimed copyright prevents everyone else in the world from saying these truisms together.”

The filing continued: “As a matter of black-letter copyright law, there is no copyright protection in plaintiffs’ alleged decision to combine players playing with haters hating.”

In a statement to The Wrap, a spokesperson for Swift said, “This is a ridiculous claim and nothing more than a money grab. The law is simple and clear. They do not have a case.”