{"id":7981,"date":"2019-10-29T10:20:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T14:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/?p=7981"},"modified":"2020-04-20T10:24:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:24:01","slug":"taylor-cannot-swiftly-escape-this-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/taylor-cannot-swiftly-escape-this-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Cannot Swiftly Escape This Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Copying a song?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 2017 copyright lawsuit in reference to Taylor Swift\u2019s popular hit \u201cShake It Off\u201d is going back down to the US District Court level for further proceedings.\u00a0 Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler sued Swift for her lyric \u201cplayers gonna play\u2026haters gonna hate.\u201d\u00a0 According to Hall and Butler\u2019s claim, Swift allegedly stole the line from a 2001 song they wrote entitled \u201cPlayas Gon\u2019 Play\u201d for the music group 3LW.\u00a0 When the 2017 lawsuit was dismissed, a judge ruled that the original 2001 lyric was \u201ctoo brief, unoriginal, and uncreative to warrant protection under the Copyright Act.\u201d\u00a0 A recent panel of three judges, however, disagreed with that reasoning, and were in favor of the plaintiffs\u2019 appeal.<\/p>\n

In the initial<\/a> lawsuit, Hall and Butler intended to blame Taylor Swift and her co-writers, Max Martin and Shellback, Sony\/ATV and Universal Music Group for copyright infringement.\u00a0 The plaintiffs were seeking 20% credit and royalties derived from Swift\u2019s song.\u00a0 Their argument stems from the notion that in 2001, it was a relatively unique and groundbreaking concept for players to play and haters to hate.\u00a0 In the current world of pop culture, this phrase is common and not considered original<\/a>.\u00a0 Hall and Butler claim that the parallels between Swift\u2019s song and their \u201cPlayas Gon\u2019 Play\u201d song is obvious.<\/p>\n

In 2018, a judge did not believe Hall and Butler\u2019s argument and ruled that their evidence was not enough to sustain a positive verdict for the plaintiffs and dismissed the case.\u00a0 Siding with the plaintiffs would only support the monopoly of the idea that players will play, and haters will hate.\u00a0 In the event of them winning the lawsuit, Hall and Butler would be granted credit for a phrase that is widely used in today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n

The three-judge panel that sent the case back down to district court referenced a 1903 ruling in their decision.\u00a0 In the early 20th<\/sup>Century, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated that lawyers should not be the ending authority on the value or worth of a work of art or expression. \u00a0The three judges who ruled in this recent appeal agreed that the trial court level would be best to determine the outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2017 copyright lawsuit in reference to Taylor Swift\u2019s popular hit \u201cShake It Off\u201d is going back down to the US District Court level for further proceedings.\u00a0 Songwriters Sean Hall…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[146,248,1161,1633,1485],"class_list":["post-7981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lawsuits","tag-copyright-2","tag-entertainment","tag-intellectual-property","tag-song","tag-trial"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7981"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8217,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981\/revisions\/8217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}