Federal Judge Dismisses Copyright Suit Over Lyrics to Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off'

The suit, filed by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler in September, claimed Swift took the “Players gonna play … and the haters gonna hate” verse in the chorus of “Shake It Off” from the song “Playas Gon’ Play,” which Hall and Butler wrote for the girl group 3LW in 2001. U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the suit after determining that “combining two truisms about playas and haters, both well-worn notions as of 2001, is simply not enough” to be eligible for protection under the Copyright Act.

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