LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A federal appeals panel today revived a Los Angeles lawsuit brought by a pair of songwriters who claimed that Taylor Swift lifted lyrics from their 2001 recording as the basis for her 2014 smash hit ``Shake It Off.''
A lower-court judge dismissed the suit in February 2018 after finding there was not enough similarity between the Taylor hit and the obscure 2001 composition, ``Playas Gon' Play,'' by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler.
The songwriters argued in their complaint that Swift's lyrics, ``Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,'' were based on the phrases ``playas gonna play'' and ``haters gonna hate'' from the earlier song.
The plaintiffs had sought a share of the profits from Swift's hit. According to the lawsuit, more than 9 million copies of the song had been sold, along with 6 million copies of Swift's album ``1989,'' and the video for the song had nearly 2.4 billion views on YouTube.
When the suit was filed, Swift's representatives called it ``a ridiculous claim and nothing more than a money grab. The law is simple and clear. They do not have a case.''
The lawsuit was remanded back to a Los Angeles federal courtroom for retrial.