‘Shake It Off’ lawsuit filed
Out-of-work musician, Jesse Braham, is suing Taylor Swift for $42 million, claiming she ripped off his lyrics for her hit song ‘Shake It Off.’ He claims that his song, ‘Haters Gone Hate,’ has the same phrases that Swift used in her song and that he copyrighted ‘Haters Gone Hate’ in February 2013.
Swift’s song, from her 1989 album which she released in 2014, has the lyrics: ‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate’, as well as ‘And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake’.
Braham’s song has the lyrics ‘Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.’
The suit includes a YouTube link to ‘Haters Gone Hate,’ sung by a Jesse Graham, which was posted in December 2013. It has 76 thumbs up, and 1,046 thumbs down from those who listened to it. The melody is different from Swift’s song.
Braham filed the suit in federal court himself without an attorney, and is asking the court to waive various filing fees, saying he last had a job in 2006. He is seeking $42 million in damages from Swift and also seeks to have the name Jessie Braham added as a songwriter to ‘Shake if Off.’
Shake It Off lawsuit dismissed
A U.S. Disctrict Court judge in California dismisses the ‘Shake It Off” lawsuit , using Taylor Swift’s own lyrics.
Jesse Braham (aka Jesse Graham) had claimed that the phrases “haters gonna hate” and “players gonna play” were plagiarized from his 2013 song “Haters Gonna Hate.” But the judge found that the phrase “haters gonna hate” was already a meme and a popular item in Google searches before Braham’s song debuted, according to evidence cited in the ruling. That’s to say nothing of the seminal 2000 track “Playas Gon’ Play” by 3LW, which the judge also cites.
In the conclusion of her ruling, the judge writes:
At present, the Court is not saying that Braham can never, ever, ever get his case back in court. But, for now, we have got problems, and the Court is not sure Braham can solve them. As currently drafted, the Complaint has a blank space— one that requires Braham to do more than write his name. And, upon consideration of the Court’s explanation in Part II, Braham may discover that mere pleading BandAids will not fix the bullet holes in his case. At least for the moment, Defendants have shaken off this lawsuit.