Pop star Taylor Swift’s hit “Shake It Off” took off immediately after being released, the catchy tune has over 1.1 billion views on Youtube and has been number one on charts across the world.
She is now being sued for 42 million dollars for supposedly stealing lyrics. Singer Jesse Braham claims to have copyright over the phrases “haters gone hate” and “playas gone play.” He released a song titled “Haters gone Hate” in 2013, where the chorus is undeniably alike to Ms. Swift’s “Shake It Off” chorus.
In case you have been missing out, here is the “Shake It Off” chorus:
Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake
Baby I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off, Shake it off
Now compare Mr. Braham’s:
Playas gone play
Haters gone hate
Watch out for the fakers
They’ll fake you everyday
Despite what Braham says, the Copyright Act does not allow such small phrases to be copyrighted especially since they are not originated by him. The phrase “hater gone hate” has been used by many others before he released his song in December 2013. In fact, Swift herself performed at the 2013 Billboard Awards wearing a T-Shirt saying “Haters gonna hate,” this event happened in May 2013… Doesn’t look so good for Mr. Braham.
According to Mr. Braham, he has approached the record label Big Machine, several times asking to be added as a writer for the song and a selfie with Taylor. The record label would not budge, denying the allegations.
Can you blame them? After doing some research on Mr. Braham, you can find that most of his YouTube videos have less than 1K views and minimal subscribers to the channel. The only exception appears to be “Hater Gone Hate,” with almost 500K views after the lawsuit has reached news. This lawsuit seems to be more of a publicity scandal than anything.
