From The Biederman Blog:
It may be true, as some songs have averred, that playas gon play, and haters, they gonna hate.
But federal district judges, well, they rule.
And, when asked to decide matters with elements that they may deem legally triflin’, their honors sometimes can just zing parties before them.
That was the case with U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald in Los Angeles, as he took up a copyright infringement suit filed by the songwriters of 3LW’s 2001 piece, Playas Gon’ Play.
They asserted that pop diva Taylor Swift violated their copyright for Playas with her hit Shake It Off (to hear it, click on image above), which became a Billboard No. 1 hit in 2014 and stayed on the charts for 50 weeks. In contrast, Playas “peaked at No. 81 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. . . [with] more than 1,000,000 units were sold.”
The judge zeroed in on plaintiff’s claims about infringing lyrics, 3LW having sung: “Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate.” Swift, on the other hand, crooned, “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”
Fitzgerald, in a rebuke that cuts multiple ways at the creativity of the works before him, found that:
In sum, the lyrics at issue – the only thing that Plaintiffs allege Defendants copied – are too brief, unoriginal, and un-creative to warrant protection under the Copyright Act.
He granted the motion by Swift and other named defendants, tentatively, to dismiss the case, in what might be deemed an artistic Pyrrhic victory.
Link to the rest at The Biederman Blog
Yep, now a fan of her songs.
Clever video!