Judge Rules Plagiarism Complaint for Taylor Swift Lyrics Will Go to Trial

A federal judge in L.A. ruled Thursday that left-wing activist and pop star Taylor Swift will face a jury trial over claims she plagiarized the lyrics for her 2014 hit, “Shake It Off.”

District judge Michael W Fitzgerald threw the case out back in 2018, but Swift’s accusers — “Playas Gon’ Play” songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler — appealed and got the case reinstated in 2019. This week, Judge Fitzgerald denied the Swift team’s request for summary judgment to have the suit ended in the singer’s favor.

Representatives for the pop star blasted the lawsuit. “These men are not the originators, or creators, of the common phrases ‘players’ or ‘haters’ or combinations of them. They did not invent these common phrases nor are they the first to use them in a song,” they said.

But the judge just could not agree to find for summary judgment.

“Even though there are some noticeable differences between the works, there are also significant similarities in word usage and sequence/structure,” the judge wrote,adding, “the court cannot presently determine that no reasonable juror could find substantial similarity of lyrical phrasing, word arrangement, or poetic structure between the two works.”

Fitzgerald admitted that Swift’s team made “persuasive arguments” but insisted that there was just too much evidence both ways to agree to Swift’s demand to end the trial out of hand.

“Our clients are finally moving closer to the justice they so richly deserve,” said Hall’s and Butler’s lawyer Marina Bogorad after the judge’s ruling was released Thursday. “The opinion… is especially gratifying to them because it reinforces the idea that their creativity and unique expression cannot be misappropriated without any retribution.”

The date for the trial has not yet been set.

This is the second time that Swift’s song “Shake It Off” has been taken to court. In 2015, a Los Angeles judge throw out a lawsuit filed by R&B singer Jesse Braham who alleged that Swift’s song was plagiarized from his 2013 song, “Haters gone Hate.” Braham sued for $42 million but lost the case when U.S. District Court Judge Gail Standish dismissed the suit.

Swift is facing another suit over a different album, as well. Evermore Park, a medieval fantasy attraction near Provo, Utah, filed a lawsuit over the singer’s 2020 album, Evermore, claiming that she caused harm to their business with the album title.

The park says that their standing on Google disappeared nearly overnight when her album was released because all searches for “Evermore” stopped sending people to their website and instead sent everyone to information about Swift’s new album.

Swift has also garnered criticism for her incessant political activism in recent years.

In 2019, the singer officially endorsed Joe Biden’s bid for the White House, saying in October of that year that Biden will work to serve the needs of “people of color,” women, and the “LGBTQIA+” community. Swift also lashed out at President Donald Trump and accused him of “stoking the fires of white supremacy” and warning “we will vote you out in November.”

This year, Swift appealed to her fans in the Virginia governor’s race in a desperate attempt to get long-time political careerist Terry McAuliffe elected there. According to reports, “Swifties” from out of state began registering in Virginia as Democrats to push McAuliffe over the finish line. The effort failed and Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin shocked the state by winning the governor’s seat.

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