--- description: A California judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift Tuesday by invoking the starlet's own lyrics. title: Judge Uses Taylor Swift's Lyrics to Dismiss Copyright Suit Against Her image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt228c5484a4b85fbd/6988705c524fc02891df5670/taylor-swift1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Judge Uses Taylor Swift's Lyrics to Dismiss Copyright Suit Against Her  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 12, 2015 2:39 PM CUT  Taylor Swift performs live during the 1989 World Tour Live in Singapore on Nov. 7, 2015. Taylor Swift performs live during the 1989 World Tour Live in Singapore on Nov. 7, 2015.Suhaimi Abdullah—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 12, 2015 2:39 PM CUT A California judge[ dismissed a copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift](http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/12/us/taylor-swift-copyright-lawsuit-dismissed/ "undefined") this week by invoking the starlet’s own lyrics. Musician Jessie Braham had filed the suit, claiming that Swift’s mega-hit “Shake It Off” stole lyrics from his 2013 song “Haters Gone Hate,” CNN reports. The lines in question: 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.” Braham, on the other hand, says he copyrighted his song in 2013, which has the lyrics, “Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.” But United States District Court Judge Gail Standish tossed out the suit, borrowing lyrics from Swift’s 2012 hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” “At present, the Court is not saying that Braham can never, ever, ever get his case back in court,” Standish wrote. “But, for now, we have got problems, and the Court is not sure Braham can solve them.” \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/12/us/taylor-swift-copyright-lawsuit-dismissed/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4109887/taylor-swift-lyrics-lawsuit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4109887/taylor-swift-lyrics-lawsuit/"},"headline":"Judge Uses Taylor Swift's Lyrics to Dismiss Copyright Suit Against Her","datePublished":"2015-11-12T14:39:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:33:31.814Z","description":"The judge borrowed from one of her hit songs","url":"https://time.com/4109887/taylor-swift-lyrics-lawsuit/","keywords":["California","Taylor Swift","Law"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt228c5484a4b85fbd/6988705c524fc02891df5670/taylor-swift1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt228c5484a4b85fbd/6988705c524fc02891df5670/taylor-swift1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"taylor-swift","caption":"at Singapore Indoor Stadium on November 7, 2015 in Singapore.","creditText":"Suhaimi Abdullah—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4109887/taylor-swift-lyrics-lawsuit/","name":"Judge Uses Taylor Swift's Lyrics to Dismiss Copyright Suit Against Her"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Power of Taylor Swift","description":"One day after Taylor Swift publicly blasted Apple Music for not paying artists during the service’s free, three-month trial period, Apple reversed its position","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mUgZx3qP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-22T20:13:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mUgZx3qP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4109887/taylor-swift-lyrics-lawsuit/","duration":"PT2M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4109887/taylor-swift-lyrics-lawsuit/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```