‘Shake It Off’: Judge dismisses copyright lawsuit filed against Taylor Swift

The lawsuit against singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has been dropped.

Two songwriters had sued Swift, claiming that she copied their lyrics for 2014′s “Shake It Off,” Reuters reported.

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler dropped their suit which was filed in 2017, telling the federal judge in Los Angeles that they were doing so with prejudice, which means that it cannot be refiled. Swift’s attorneys also asked the judge to dismiss the suit, Variety reported.

Variety reported that the songwriters and Swift had reached an agreement but didn’t give specifics.

A trial had been scheduled to start next month.

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Court records show that the judge dismissed the suit in its entirety, BBC News reported.

“Shake It Off” includes the lyrics “the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” while the song written by Hall and Butler called “Playas Goin’ Play” include the lyrics “playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.”

Swift’s song was nominated for three Grammy Awards and went diamond in 2020, meaning it had more than 10 million sales and streams, according to the RIAA.

"Shake It Off" is @taylorswift13’s first song to be certified Diamond in the United States.
— chart data (@chartdata) March 14, 2020

“Playas Goin’ Play” was performed by 3LW and was released in 2001, appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 and MTV’s Total Request Live, Reuters reported.

Swift said she had never heard “Playas Goin’ Play” and that “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” are commonly used to “express the idea that one can or should shrug off negativity.”

Swift along with Max Martin and Shellback are credited with writing “Shake It Off,” Variety reported.

The copyright case had been dismissed in 2018, but a U.S. appeals court allowed it to proceed the next year.

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