Taylor Swift to face trial in ‘Shake It Off’ copyright case

A judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against Taylor Swift and others who helped to write the music to her 2014 hit, “Shake It Off,” ruling that they must face a jury to decide the case.

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Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler filed suit against Swift and others in 2017, claiming that the lyrics to her 2014 hit borrowed from their 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play,” which was released in 2001 by 3LW. A judge dismissed the suit in 2018, though an appeals court later reversed that ruling.

In an order issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald acknowledged that “there are some noticeable differences” between the two songs, but, he said “there are also significant similarities in word usage and sentence/structure.”

“It is clear that there are enough objective similarities amongst the works to imply that the Court cannot presently determine that no reasonable juror could find substantial similarity of lyrical phrasing, word arrangement or poetic structure between the two works,” he wrote.

In “Playas Gon’ Play,” the lyrics highlighted by Hall and Butler are contained in the chorus: “Playas, they gon’ play/ And haters, they gonna hate.”

In “Shake It Off,” the disputed lyrics include, “‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”

Swift’s team has argued that the lyrics in question come from phrases in the public domain and that they’re used differently than they have been in 3LW’s 2001 hit. Attorneys for Hall and Butler argued that the “compositions underlying the two songs” are similar enough to entitle them to damages.

In his ruling Thursday, Fitzgerald said that attorneys for Swift “have made a strong closing argument for a jury” but failed to show that there were no “genuine issues of triable fact,” which would allow him to dismiss the case outright.

In a statement obtained by Billboard, a lawyer for Hall and Butler praised the court for doing “the right thing.”

“Our clients are finally moving closer to the justice they so richly deserve,” attorney Marina Bogorad said, according to Billboard. “The opinion … is especially gratifying to them because it reinforces the idea that their creativity and unique expression cannot be misappropriated without any retribution.”

“Playas Gon’ Play” became a hit after it was released by 3LW in May 2001, appearing on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and featuring prominently on popular music video shows airing at the time, including MTV’s “Total Request Live.”

“Shake It Off” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in August 2014 and remained on the charts for 50 weeks.

The case is expected to go to trial in August 2022.

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