In what’s possibly the best case dismissal of all time, a California judge tossed out a lawsuit against Taylor Swift in the most appropriate way possible – with Taylor Swift lyrics, of course.
Last month, an unknown R&B singer named Jesse Braham sued the pop star for $42 million, alleging that she stole his lyrics and used them for her hit song “Shake It Off.”
Braham claimed the lyrics were ripped off his copyrighted 2013 song “Haters Gone Hate,” which includes the following line: "Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you every day."
Similarly, Swift sings on her 2014 album, “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate… And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake.”
This week, U.S. District Court Judge Gail Standish ruled that both “haters gonna hate” and “playas gonna play” were already popular phrases, and not to mention widely-searched on Google long before Braham’s song even debuted, Fortune reports.
In her ruling, Standish – borrowing lyrics from several of Swift’s hit songs -- wrote a ridiculous conclusion to what’s been widely described as a ridiculous case:
“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.”
