Michael W.Fitzgerald: Last News

As the song theft legal battle in relation to Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ rumbles on, at a court hearing yesterday attention turned to the argument that the songwriters suing Swift don’t even have the legal right to pursue the litigation.In this particular song-theft case, songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler accuse Swift of ripping off their 2001 song ‘Playas Gon Play’ when she wrote her 2014 hit. The claim is mainly based on the similarities between the two songs’ respective key lines, with the 2001 track having the line “the playas gon play/them haters gonna hate”, while ‘Shake It Off’ famously includes the lyric “the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”.Swift’s legal team have been trying very hard to get the case dismissed, mainly on the basis that the notion of players playing and haters hating is far too generic for lyrics based on said notion to be protected by copyright in isolation.

Garth Brooks wasted no time making his next move once the “We Shall Be Free” singer had the rape case from a former make-up artist and stylist for himself and Trisha Yearwood shifted from California state court to federal court.

11-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift - who turns 33 this Tuesday - received an early birthday present on Monday when US District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the copyright lawsuit regarding her 2014 hit Shake It Off.The trial scheduled to begin on January 17 was called off when songwriters - Nate Butler and Sean 'Sep' Hall - agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled, according to NBC News.Butler and Hall previously claimed in 2017 that the Pennsylvania-born pop diva had plagiarized lyrics from their 2001 song Playas Gon' Play written for the girl group 3LW.

One of the big ongoing song theft legal battles has been settled. A deal has been reached between Taylor Swift and songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler over the lyrical references to playas playing and haters hating in her 2014 hit ‘Shake It Off’.Hall and Butler accused Swift of ripping off their 2001 song ‘Playas Gon Play’ when she wrote ‘Shake It Off’.

copyright infringement lawsuit centered on ‘Shake It Off’ to be dismissed is denied, and that the trial will go ahead.US District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald issued his decision nearly nine months after Swift’s motion to have the case dropped was put forward.In last December’s defence motion, Swift’s lawyers argued that Fitzgerald had failed to consider the “extrinsic test” – the standard whereby it’s determined if copyright is breached when two works of similar nature are presented – within songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler’s claim that Swift copied lines from the pair’s 2001 song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’.Swift’s legal team believes that such a consideration would make it clear that Swift’s lyrics are based on phrases in the public domain and not, in fact, copied from Hall and Butler.“There’s a genuine issue of material fact,” Fitzgerald said upon issuing the ruling yesterday (September 12) in a hearing at a Los Angeles court [via Rolling Stone].“The motion for reconsideration is denied,” he continued.

Kenneth Petty has been sentenced for failing to register as a sex offender. Nicki Minaj's husband, who pleaded guilty to the charges against him in September, has been sentenced to a mix of in-home confinement, probation and fines, ET confirms.«Kenneth Petty pleaded guilty in September 2021 to one count of failure to register as a sex offender,» a public information officer for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles told ET.

Taylor Swift will be forced to defend herself against copyright claims in front of a jury after a federal judge ruled the lawsuit will go to trial.Swift, 31, is being sued by songwritersSean Hall and Nathan Butler, who claim that her 2014 hit Shake It Off lifted lines from their 2001 song Playas Gon' Play, which was performed by the girl group 3LW.The case was previously dismissed by the judge, but the successful appeal means the songwriters will get to make their case in court. On trial: A federal judge ruled Friday that Taylor Swift will have to go to a jury trial over claims that she reused lines from 3LW's Playas Gon' Play in her 2014 hit Shake It Off; seen in 2019 in NYCU.S.

Taylor Swift will be forced to defend herself against copyright claims in front of a jury after a federal judge ruled the lawsuit will go to trial.Swift, 31, is being sued by songwritersSean Hall and Nathan Butler, who claim that her 2014 hit Shake It Off lifted lines from their 2001 song Playas Gon' Play, which was performed by the girl group 3LW.The case was previously dismissed by the judge, but the successful appeal means the songwriters will get to make their case in court. On trial: A federal judge ruled Friday that Taylor Swift will have to go to a jury trial over claims that she reused lines from 3LW's Playas Gon' Play in her 2014 hit Shake It Off; seen in 2019 in NYCU.S.

Taylor Swift will be forced to defend herself against copyright claims in front of a jury after a federal judge ruled the lawsuit will go to trial.Swift, 31, is being sued by songwritersSean Hall and Nathan Butler, who claim that her 2014 hit Shake It Off lifted lines from their 2001 song Playas Gon' Play, which was performed by the girl group 3LW.The case was previously dismissed by the judge, but the successful appeal means the songwriters will get to make their case in court. On trial: A federal judge ruled Friday that Taylor Swift will have to go to a jury trial over claims that she reused lines from 3LW's Playas Gon' Play in her 2014 hit Shake It Off; seen in 2019 in NYCU.S.