Taylor Swift is moving past the legal troubles she encountered as a result of her 2014 single, “Shake It Off,” which peaked at number one on the charts.
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The song shared second place with Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” with a 50-week run on the Billboard Hot 100. However, in 2015, the singer was sued for $42 million in copyright infringement by R&B musician Jesse Graham.
Graham claimed that the diva plagiarized lyrics from his 2013 song “Haters Gone Hate” for “Shake It Off.” Haters went to hate, playas went to play, were among the lyrics in Graham’s song. Watch out for fakers; they’ll trick you every day.
The chorus of Swift’s song starts out, “Because the players going to play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, ” at the same time.
Her hook is exactly like mine. The chart-topping song’s performance by Swift on The Ellen DeGeneres Show was the first time the R&B singer recognized the similarities. Graham once told the Daily News, “If I hadn’t written the song ‘Haters Gone Hate,’ there wouldn’t be a song called ‘Shake It Off.
Graham first spoke with Swift’s staff, requesting a co-writing position on the song and a photo with the singer. But once his request was turned down, he took the legal high road and filed a copyright lawsuit. Shortly after, Graham’s lawsuit was denied, but he persisted in trying.
In November 2019, he sued Swift for the fourth time, but this time he did it through his business because he could no longer sue her directly. Graham was accused of misbehaving and labeled as a “vexatious litigator,” a term used to describe someone who continually files lawsuits against persons in situations where they have no basis in reality.
When the fourth attempt was also unsuccessful, Graham last week appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The court, however, ruled in Swift’s favor because Graham was unable to articulate the discriminatory nature of the earlier judgments.
According to California law, those who are labeled as “vexatious litigants” may encounter severe challenges in any judicial action they pursue.
Sean Hall and Nathan Butler’s lawsuit
Swift’s legal team did prevail in the lawsuit against Graham, but they were still faced with another issue. The band claimed that Swift’s catchiest lyrics were stolen from their 2001 song “Playas Gon Play,” which they used as the basis for their complaint. The singer and the creators of the song “Shake It Off” are currently embroiled in a legal battle.
They sung in their song, “The playas gon play/Them haters going to hate.” Judge Michael Fitzgerald dismissed their initial complaint, as well as Graham’s, on the grounds that the lyrics about players playing and haters hating were not sufficiently innovative to warrant copyright protection.
The legal team for Swift has made numerous attempts to have the copyright case rejected. They did, however, take their case to the Ninth Circuit, where it was reinstated with victory. Fitzgerald, though, claims that Swift’s side hasn’t offered any fresh justifications since the lawsuit started, therefore it hasn’t been effective.
The inquiry is still being conducted.
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