A copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift has been dismissed.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler in 2017, claimed that the singer stole lyrics from 3LW’s 2001 song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’ to write her hit track ‘Shake It Off’.
The case was set to go to trial on January 17, but it has since been dismissed by judge Michael Fitzgerald.
The filing, made on Monday and obtained by the PA news agency, read: “Pursuant to the parties’ Stipulation, this action is hereby dismissed, in its entirety and with prejudice, Plaintiffs and Defendants to bear their respective attorney’s fees and cost.”
Taylor, 33, previously said she had “never heard” of the song Playas Gon’ Play or 3LW prior to the lawsuit.
She said in a sworn declaration: “The lyrics to Shake It Off were written entirely by me. Shake It Off is about independence and ‘shaking off’’ negative personal criticism through music and dance.”
“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.”
“Prior to writing Shake It Off I had heard the phrases ‘players gonna play’ and ‘haters gonna hate’ uttered countless times to express the idea that one can or should shrug off negativity.”
“Until learning about Plaintiffs’ claim in 2017, I had never heard the song 9 Playas Gon’ Play and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW,” the songstress added.
