Taylor Swift, songwriters agree to end ‘Shake It Off’ copyright case

By Blake Brittain

Dec 12 (Reuters) – Two songwriters have dropped their
lawsuit claiming Grammy-winning musician Taylor Swift copied
their lyrics in her 2014 number-one hit “Shake It Off,”
according to court documents filed on Monday.

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler told a Los Angeles federal judge
they will dismiss their 2017 case with prejudice, which means it
cannot be refiled.

A trial in the case had been scheduled to begin Jan. 17.

Monday’s court papers, filed jointly by attorneys for both
Swift and the songwriters, did not say if there was a
settlement. Representatives for the parties did not immediately
respond to requests for more information.

In “Shake It Off,” Swift sings: “the players gonna play,
play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate,
hate, hate.”

“Playas Gon’ Play,” written by Hall and Butler, included the
phrases “playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.”
The song, performed by R&B group 3LW, was released in 2001 and
appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 and MTV’s Total Request Live.

A judge dismissed the case in 2018, but a U.S. appeals court
revived it in 2019.

Swift told the court in August that she had never heard
3LW’s song before writing “Shake It Off.” She said she had heard
the phrases “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” used
commonly to “express the idea that one can or should shrug off
negativity.”

Hall and Butler said that the lyrics were too close for
their similarity to be a coincidence. They had asked for an
unspecified amount of money damages.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain; Editing by David Bario and Aurora
Ellis)