Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ Copyright Lawsuit Has Been Dropped

UPDATE: Taylor Swift has shaken off a copyright lawsuit that alleged she had plagiarized the lead song to her 1989 album. The two songwriters, Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, dropped the suit and said they would dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning that they will not be able to refile, according to Reuters.

A trial for the case had originally been scheduled to start on January 17. The court papers filed on Monday did not state if there was a settlement involved between the parties.

The end of the lawsuit also gives way for Swift to continue re-recording her album.

PREVIOUSLY, September 3, 2020: A Los Angeles federal court judge has decided that two songwriters who claim their lyrics were pilfered by Taylor Swift for her massive 2014 hit Shake It Off may have a case. 

US District Judge Michael Fitzgerald said that songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler “have sufficiently alleged a protectable selection and arrangement or a sequence of creative expression” and Swift’s “use as alleged is similar enough” to survive the motion to dismiss.

Hall and Butler filed suit in 2017, saying the 2001 3LW recording Playas Gon’ Play, was the source of Swift’s lyrics on her Shake It Off.

The 3LW song includes the lyrics “Playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.”