Taylor Swift is no longer the subject of a copyright lawsuit. On December 12, a lawsuit alleging that Swift plagiarized 3LW’s 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” was dropped, per diversityends a year-long dispute.
A trial seemed almost inevitable when a last-ditch effort to avoid one was turned down in September, per Rolling Stone. In December 2021, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald denied Swift’s motion for summary judgment in her favor, and the judge also denied her request for a retrial on September 12, meaning Swift will appear in court in January 2023 would have to.
“The motion for review is denied,” Judge Fitzgerald told Rolling Stone during a Los Angeles hearing at the time. “I don’t think it meets the standard for re-examination, and even if it did, and I approached the matter again, I still think there is a real problem with material facts, partly because of the expert opinion. ”
Swift was sued by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who wrote “Playas Gon’ Play” for 3LW. They sued Swift for the same reason back in 2017, although a judge dismissed the case at the time. However, on December 12, Hall and Butler’s attorneys jointly moved to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety, which Judge Fitzgerald granted. It’s unclear why the plaintiffs chose to drop the lawsuit, and representatives for Hall, Butler and Swift did not immediately respond to POPSUGAR’s requests for comment.
Swift has always denied plagiarizing any part of her hit song “Shake It Off,” and filed a filing on Aug. 8, claiming she had never heard of 3LW prior to the lawsuit. “The lyrics to ‘Shake It Off’ were written entirely by me,” Swift wrote in the statement, which was first shared by billboard. “Until I learned of the plaintiffs’ allegation in 2017, I had never heard of the song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’ and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW.”
Elaborating further on the inspiration behind her song, she wrote that “before writing ‘Shake It Off'” she had heard the phrases ‘players will play’ and ‘haters will hate’ countless times to express that idea one can or should shake off negativity. I remember hearing phrases about gamers and haters being said by other kids together while attending school in Wyomissing Hills and high school in Hendersonville,” she added, noting that “I don’t own and never have the albums ‘Now That’s What I Call Music! 6’ or ‘Now That’s What I Call Call Music! 7’ heard.”
In October, the singer released her tenth studio album “Midnights”. She’s also been consistently re-recording and re-releasing her music over the past few years, most recently appearing in July with “Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version)” on DC: League of Super-Pets. “Bad Blood” is a single from “1989,” the same album that touted “Shake It Off”—and think some fans “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” could be closer than ever now that “Shake It Off” is free of legal baggage.