Copyright Suit Targeting Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" Revived by Appeals Court | Hollywood Reporter 1/21/21, 11:20 AM

Copyright Suit Targeting Taylor

Swift's "Shake It Off" Revived by
Appeals Court
Does Taylor Swift believe there are haters at the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals? Because on Monday, in a bit of a surprise, the federal appellate
court revived a copyright lawsuit brought by two songwriters over Swift's
mega-hit "Shake It Off."

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler sued Swift, claiming her song stole their lyrics
from a 2001 work titled "Playas Gon’ Play.”

“Playas, they gonna play/ And haters, they gonna hate," went the plaintiffs'
song, compared to the chorus of "Shake It Off" where Swift sang, “Cause
the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate,
hate, hate, hate.”

In February 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Michael W Fitzgerald wasn't

impressed with the plaintiffs' complaint, writing, "It is hardly surprising that
Plaintiffs, hoping to convey the notion that one should persist regardless of
others' thoughts or actions, focused on both players playing and haters
hating when numerous recent popular songs had each addressed the
subjects of players, haters, and player haters."

The federal judge added that "combining two truisms about playas and
haters, both well-worn notions as of 2001, is simply not enough,"
concluding, "In sum, the lyrics at issue — the only thing that Plaintiffs allege
Defendants copied — are too brief, unoriginal, and uncreative to warrant
protection under the Copyright Act."

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Copyright Suit Targeting Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" Revived by Appeals Court | Hollywood Reporter 1/21/21, 11:20 AM

A three-judge panel of Ninth Circuit judges says this conclusion was

premature.

"Originality, as we have long recognized, is normally a question of fact,"

states the latest decision before the judges quote the late Supreme Court
justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who once wrote, "It would be a dangerous
undertaking for persons trained only to the law to constitute themselves final
judges of the worth of pictorial illustrations, outside of the narrowest and
most obvious limits."

"Justice Holmes’ century-old warning remains valid," continues Monday's

ruling. "By concluding that, 'for such short phrases to be protected under
the Copyright Act, they must be more creative than the lyrics at issues here,'
the district court constituted itself as the final judge of the worth of an
expressive work. Because the absence of originality is not established either
on the face of the complaint or through the judicially noticed matters, we
reverse the district court’s dismissal."

The case is remanded back to a district court for further proceedings.

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