A copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift is returning to court in the US, after an appeal overturned an earlier dismissal of the case.
Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who wrote 3LW’s song 'Playas Gon’ Play,' are suing Swift for an undisclosed sum, claiming 20% of 'Shake It Off' is their song based on lyrical similarities.
Here are 3LW’s lyrics:
Playas, they gonna play And haters, they gonna hate
And here are Swift’s lyrics:
Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
In February 2018, a federal judge said the 3LW songwriters who brought the claim, Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, did not have creative ownership over the phrases, which were deemed to be commonplace. “By 2001, American popular culture was heavily steeped in the concepts of players, haters, and player haters,” judge Michael Fitzgerald wrote. “The concept of actors acting in accordance with their essential nature is not at all creative; it is banal.”
But the successful appeal found that Fitzgerald should not have had the sole final judgment on the originality of the song. The decision will now be made by a jury.
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