In front of a federal judge in Los Angeles, Sean Hall and Nathan Butler have decided to withdraw their lawsuit from 2017 with prejudice. This decision ensures that the case cannot be refiled. Originally scheduled for Jan. 17, the trial will no longer take place.
The court documents filed on Monday, which were submitted by lawyers representing Taylor Swift and the songwriters, did not confirm whether a settlement had been reached or not. No further details have been provided by either party at this time. As mentioned in the lyrics of her hit song “Shake It Off,” Swift acknowledges that people will continue to criticize and judge her, but she remains focused on her own path.
In 2001, a popular R&B group called 3LW released a song titled “Playas Gon’ Play,” which featured the catchy phrases “playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.” The songwriters, Hall and Butler, came up with these lyrics that landed the track on both the Billboard Hเนt 100 and MTV’s Total Request Live charts.
The lawsuit against Taylor Swift was dismissed by a judge in 2018, but it was revived by a U.S. appeals court in 2019. In August, Swift informed the court that she had no prior knowledge of 3LW’s song when she wrote “Shake It Off.” She explained that the phrases “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” were commonly used to convey the message of ignoring negativity.
According to Hall and Butler, the lyrics were too similar to be a coincidence, and they have requested an unspecified amount of money in damages.
