Taylor Swift isn’t going to get stuck with her attorney’s fees after a judge threw out a lawsuit brought against her by two songwriters, so now she’s demanding that they handle her hefty legal bill and says they both were warned that they should not have taken on Swift in the first place.
According to documents filed by her legal team on March 16, and obtained by The Blast, Swift wants songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler to cover her costs after they claimed she ripped off their 2001 song, “Playas Gon’ Play,” and used it for her smash hit, “Shake It Off.” It was specifically based around the lyrics, “players, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate,” which is featured in both songs.
Swift’s lawyer reveals that prior to the two men taking legal action they had demanded a $30 million payment to avoid a lawsuit. The singer and her team believed this to be a frivilous attempt to make a quick buck, and claim they even warned Hall and Butler that they should not sue because they had no case.
Well, the two didn’t listen, and after they filed suit a judge dismissed the claim and said, “In order for such short phrases to be protected under the Copyright Act, they must be more creative than the lyrics at issue here.”
Swift and her team believe that awarding the star the $72,276 in fees is completely justified because the two men “Sought tens of millions of dollars and the loss of Shake It Off.”
The motion has not been ruled on yet.
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