The trouble doesn’t seem to be going away for Taylor Swift, a couple of months ago she was being sued by a DJ because of claims that she made about sexual harassment that caused him to loose his job. And now she is being sued by R & B singer Jesse Graham for stealing lines from his song ” Hater Gonna Hate”.
Graham claims that he has a connection with Swift’s management and they have heard the song before. This is how he thinks that Swift got the idea for her pop anthem- “Shake It Off”. This song was the lead single for her 1989 album which came out over a year ago. Graham puts forth that if it were not for his song and his lyrics that she would not have been able to come up with her song that has gained so much success over the past year.
Some claim that they phrases that Graham claims that Swift stole are common everyday phrases that are just so apart of human culture that one can not be blamed for putting them into lyrics, and others claims that she stole the lyrics and claimed them as her own.
The phrase was also used in a song by girl group 3LW, so does the theft go back even further than Jesse Graham. I wonder upon further examination how many times that phrase has been used. The phrase haters has been apart of popular culture for a while being cited in rap lyrics, t shirts, even televisions shows. Can one person really claim ownership over that phrase? Or is the phrase just so common that it can’t be apart of copyright?