Taylor Swift will face a trial over accusations that she plagiarized the lyrics to the song “Shake it Off”, released in 2014. According to the British newspaper “The Guardian”, the judge ruled that a jury must decide if the song is a copy of “ Playas Gon’ Play”, song released by female group 3LW in 2001.
Both songs have lyrics that explore variations of the phrases “Players gonna play” and “Haters gonna hate”. A retrial date has yet to be announced.
The lawsuit, which began in 2017, was rejected in 2018 by US District Court Judge Michael Fitzgerald, who said he considered the phrases too commonplace to be protected by copyright. As justification, the magistrate cited other songs with similar excerpts.
The following year, however, the decision was reversed, answering the appeal of Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, composers of “Playas Gon’ Play”, who asked for the case to be referred to a jury.
In response, a representative for Swift stated: “These men did not originate or create the terms ‘players’ or ‘haters’ or combinations of them. They didn’t invent these common phrases, nor are they the first to use them in a song.” They spoke out saying that the songwriters of “Shake it Off”, officially Taylor Swift and co-producers Max Martin and Shellback, will manage to prevail in the case. The artist’s rep further suggested that Hall and Butler’s motivation would be purely financial, not about creative justice.
This Thursday (9), Judge Michael Fitzgerald rejected the singer’s request for a summary judgment, which would expedite the end of the process and forward the decision that she did not commit copyright infringement.
“Although there are some noticeable differences between the works, there are also significant similarities in word usage and in sequence and structure,” Fitzgerald wrote in the decision.
“Shake it Off”, the main hit of the album “1989”, is the most successful single of Taylor Swift’s career and reached number one on the US music charts.
In 2015, the artist was accused of plagiarism for the same song. At the time, R&B singer Jessie Braham claimed that “Shake it Off” would be a plagiarism of her song “Haters Gonna Hate”, released in 2013. Braham asked for damages of US$ 42 million, but the lawsuit was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Watch the video for “Palyas Gon’ Play”:
Reference: CNN Brasil
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