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22 November 2019CopyrightSaman Javed

Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ faces more infringement claims

A California-based songwriter has filed a second copyright infringement suit against Taylor Swift over her song "Shake It Off".

In a complaint, filed November 20 at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Jesse Graham said Swift’s 2014 hit single “Shake it Off” infringes a musical composition he wrote in 2013, named “Haters gone Hate”.

According to the complaint, Graham’s composition, which was registered with Broadcast Music Inc in the same year, includes the chorus: “Haters gone hate haters gone hate, playas gone play playas gone play, watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you every day.”

This is the second time Graham has sued the singer over the same song. In 2015, he filed a lawsuit allegeging copyright infringement at the same court, but the claim was dismissed.

Graham, who has also filed an application to register the composition at the US Copyright Office, said he has performed the composition since 2013 and has also published it for purchase on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.

In his complaint, Graham alleged that Swift’s song “extensively copies” his musical composition. He said his composition accounts for roughly 20% of Swift’s song, in particular, her chorus: “Cause the players gonna play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate.”

Swift “undoubtedly” had access to the “Haters gone Hate” composition prior to writing and releasing “Shake It Off” “given the broad dissemination of the composition”, the filing said.

Graham said Swift should have known that she could not use his lyrics without a licence or song credit and asked the court to award him $150,000 per infringement and damages of $42 million.

In his argument, Graham recounted the success of Swift’s single of which 9 million copies have been sold worldwide. The song’s music video is also the seventh most viewed on YouTube with more than 2.3 million views.

Additionally, he said Swift was exploiting his composition, by licencing “Shake It Off” to third parties for commercial uses including advertisements, television and video games.

Last month, WIPR reported that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has revived a separate copyright lawsuit against Swift over the same song.

In 2017, songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler sued Swift, claiming that the “Player’s gonna play, play, play, play, play/And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” refrain in “Shake It Off” was derived from their 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play”.

Swift was initially able to avoid the claims after the US District Court for the Central District of California dismissed the suit on summary judgment.

But, in the latest development, the Ninth Circuit found that the district court had inappropriately “constituted itself as the final judge of the worth of an expressive work”.

Hall and Butler will now get another chance to argue their claims.

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29 October 2019   Taylor Swift will once again face claims that she ripped off some of the lyrics for her hook in the 2014 hit “Shake It Off”, after the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit revived a copyright lawsuit over the song.