Five-Year Copyright Lawsuit against Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ Dismissed

A lawsuit alleging that Taylor Swift plagiarized lyrics from 3LW’s song “Playas Gon’ Play” for her hit “Shake It Off,” originally filed by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler in 2017, has been dismissed after five years.

The claims centered on Swift using the lines “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” in her song, which the plaintiffs argued were adapted from their “Playas gon’ play / And haters, they gon’ hate” lyrics.

The lawsuit was voluntarily dropped by both parties when the attorneys for Swift and the songwriters filed a joint stipulation to dismiss it “in its entirety.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald officially dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice on December 12, just before the trial was scheduled to commence.

Earlier, Swift had refuted the allegations, asserting that she had never heard the song she was accused of plagiarizing. She insisted that the lyrics to “Shake It Off” were entirely her own creation.

In her court documents, Swift defended herself, stating, “The lyrics to ‘Shake It Off’ were written entirely by me.” She argued that phrases like “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” were commonly used and drew from her personal experiences.

“In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music.”

Currently, Swift also faces another copyright lawsuit over a book she released in 2019. Author Teresa La Dart sued Swift for over a million dollars, claiming that Swift copied her poetry book, “Lover,” for the companion booklet of her “Lover” album.