Sensational pop star Taylor Swift was sued in 2017 by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, both of whom wrote the 2001 song “Plays Gon Play” by the group 3LW saying she allegedly ripped off their lyrics. Taylor Swift has asked a judge to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit over her single “Shake It Off,” as she called the judge’s ruling for the case to proceed to jury trial “unprecedented.” Taylor’s song “Shake it Off” was a hit released in 2014 which spent four weeks in the Hot 100 chart. On Dec. 9 , U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald denied Swift’s motion for summary judgment and allowed the case to proceed, concluding there is a “genuine dispute as to the potential substantial similarity between the lyrics and their sequential structure.” And on Dec. 23, Swift’s attorney, Peter Anderson, called the judge’s decision something “no other court has done,” and requested the ruling be “revisited.”

ILS students certainly have opinions over this dispute regarding Swift’s lyrics, “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” as Hall and Butler’s song featured the phrases, “playas, they gonna play” and “haters, they gonna hate.”

Senior Katrina Diaz-Balart states her opinions as an avid Taylor fan

“I think that it’s just another effort by jealous individuals to bring her down because she is so wonderful and amazing and she’s so talented and just like Taylor said herself people throw rocks at things that shine, so people are just trying to bring her down because they can and I think it’s dumb.”

Senior Maria Meyer states her opinion on the lawsuit: “I think the whole lawsuit is unnecessary because Taylor using the words “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” does not mean that she copied another song. Besides, those are extremely popular phrases that have been used for many other works. I think the lawsuit will end in Taylor’s favor as both songs involved are separate pieces of work.”

Isabella Gallo, senior said, “I don’t think Taylor Swift purposefully copied the other groups lyrics. I think it’s all a really crazy coincidence.”