Taylor Swift Must Face a Jury Trial in a ‘Shake It Off’ Lawsuit
Pop star Taylor Swift can’t shake off a lawsuit over her 2014 hit, “Shake It Off.” In an update to the legal case, a federal judge declared on Dec. 9 that Swift must face a jury trial in the copyright-infringement case brought on by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler. As Billboard reports, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald refused the singer’s request to dismiss the plaintiffs’ accusations that “Shake It Off” infringed on the 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” by 3LW.
In his ruling, Fitzgerald acknowledged “some noticeable differences” between the two songs but said there were “enough objective similarities amongst the works to imply that 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.”
