Taylor Swift is a musician, singer and songwriter. (Photo : REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Taylor Swift was slapped with a $42 million lawsuit for allegedly copying the lyrics to her hit song "Shake It Off".
The lawsuit was filed by an artist named Jesse Braham who has claimed that the lyrics "cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate," was copied from one of his 2013 songs "Haters Gone Hate."
The 50-year-old artist claimed that there was no way Swift came up independently with the lyrics of her song that is surprisingly quit similar to his track. He also declared that "Shake It Off" had the "same hook" as his track.
"If I didn't write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn't be a song called Shake It Off," claimed the artist, who is also known as Jesse Graham onstage, in his formal complaint, The Verge reported.
The lawsuit complaint also contained a YouTube link to Braham's song that was posted in December 2013.
Braham also disclosed that before filing the lawsuit, he contacted Swift's record label, Big Machine, four or five times about the issue and demanded to be credited as a writer, along with the selfie with the 25-year-old star. However, his proposal was dismissed and was told that his claim had no merit.
Despite the claims raised by Braham, his track does not sound at all like Swift's hit number. Fans and online commentators were quick to point out that phrases like "haters gonna hate" and "players gonna play" are used in common language for a decade now.
"This case is going nowhere," Michael Einhorn, an expert witness who specializes in intellectual property cases told CNN Money citing copyright's "fair use" doctrine.
