Frank Scibilia, co-head of Pryor Cashman's Copyright practice, was recently interviewed by Bloomberg Law on the impact of the Taylor Swift copyright case currently in the Ninth Circuit.
Bloomberg noted that, "The court reinstated claims that Swift's refrain of "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" in her 2014 hit "Shake It Off" ripped off Sean Hall and Nathan Butler's 2001 song, which features the lyrics "Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate."
In response, Scibilia cautioned, "Courts routinely dismiss copyright infringement claims because they fail to show infringement of an original work....You'll have people who don't understand copyright law or looking to cash in, and it can't be dismissed quickly. And you're looking at discovery and a lot of excess cost if the court can't say it's not original."
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