Taylor Swift will need to defend herself in court against copyright claims after the federal judge has ruled that the case will go to trial.
Swift, 31, is being sued by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who claim that her 2014 hit Shake It Off lifted lines from their 2001 song Playas Gon’ Play, which was performed by the girl group 3LW.
Although the case was dismissed previously by a judge the appeal has been successful and the songwriters can now present their case to the court.
Taylor Swift is on trial. A federal judge has ruled that Taylor Swift must go to trial for claims she rewrote lines from 3LW’s Playas Gn’ Play in Shake It Off in 2014. This was seen in NYC in 2019.
A federal judge approved the case for trial, after concluding that there was a possibility that a jury would find her guilty of plagiarism.
In each song, the lyrics ‘players will play’ and ‘haters going to hate’ are used in similar ways.
An earlier judge had ruled that similar lines could not be considered copyright infringement because they were too banal.
Similarities