Shake It Off lyrical legal battle settled
completemusicupdate.comOne 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’.
The earlier song included the line “the playas gon play/them haters gonna hate”, while Swift’s hit famously featured the lyric “the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”.Throughout, Swift’s legal team argued 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.
Initially the judge overseeing the case, Michael W Fitzgerald, agreed with that viewpoint and dismissed Hall and Butler’s lawsuit as a result.
But that decision was then overturned on appeal.Swift’s lawyers then tried very hard indeed to have the case dismissed for a second time, possibly sensing that Fitzgerald was still of the opinion that Hall and Butler’s legal claim was pretty weak.
Read more on completemusicupdate.com
