Taylor Swift has asked for a copyright lawsuit against her to be dismissed.
The 28-year-old singer was sued by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler in September 2017, who claimed her 2014 single ‘Shake It Off’ – which had the chorus, "Players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" – ripped off ‘Playas Gon’ Play’, a track they wrote for girl group 3LW in 2001 which featured the phrase, "Playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate."
But lawyers acting for Taylor have argued the phrase "players gonna play and haters gonna hate" is a musical cliché and should be in the public domain.
In a motion to dismiss obtained by the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column, the legal team wrote: "There can be no copyright protection in ‘playas, they gonna play and haters, they gonna hate,’ because it would impermissibly monopolise the idea that players will play and haters will hate.
"Plaintiffs’ claim to being the only ones in the world who can refer to players playing and haters hating is frivolous… Providing a copyright monopoly in the phrase would prevent others from sharing the idea that players play and haters hate."
The lawyers went on to argue the concepts were "public domain cliches" and insisted courts have consistently held that short phrases cannot be copyrighted.
They also cited other references to "players" and "haters" in pop culture, including Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 single ‘Dreams’ and ‘Playa Hater’, a 1997 track from Notorious B.I.G..
A spokesperson for the ‘Gorgeous’ singer previously slammed the lawsuit as "ridiculous" and a "money grab".
They said: "This is a ridiculous claim and nothing more than a money grab. The law is simple and clear. They do not have a case."
Taylor Swift wants lawsuit dismissed
