Not this time Taylor
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A phrase that was apparently coined by Taylor Swift in her song ‘Shake It Off’ has been deemed ‘too banal’ to be copyrighted, a US court judge has ruled.
Judge Michael W Fitzgerald made the comments while dismissing a case against Taylor Swift. Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler sued the Reputation star last year, arguing that her song Shake It Off stole from theirs, Playas Gon’ Play. Which is the stupidest name for a song we’ve ever heard?
They said the chorus of her song relied on the lyric ‘playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate’. Peak originality right there. Just:
Although the phrases are generally exempt from copyright claims, the writers argued that combining two thoughts were original enough to warrant protection.
The honourable judge disagreed, however. Rather strongly.
His argument was that both phrases lacked such originality that they were literally too generic to put a copyright claim on either lyric.
‘The allegedly infringed lyrics are short phrases that lack the modicum of originality and creativity required for copyright protection. In sum, the lyrics at issue… are too brief, unoriginal, and uncreative to warrant protection under the Copyright Act.’
Go for the throat Fitzgerald, bloody hell.
He did, however, give Hall and Butler one more chance to amend their argument before 26th February, ‘just in case there are more similarities between Playas Gon’ Play and Shake it Off than the Plaintiffs have alleged thus far.’
Safe to say, we aren’t confident in their argument.