3 Count: Supreme Genius

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1: Supreme Court Asks for Biden Administration’s Views in Google Copyright Case

First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that the Supreme Court is seeking guidance from the solicitor general on how it should rule on a case that pits the lyrics site Genius against the search giant Google.

Genius filed the lawsuit alleging that Google was scraping their crowdsourced lyrics and publishing them in search results. However, Genius is not the owner of those lyrics and instead tried to argue that Google’s scraping was against their terms of service.

But both the district court and the appeals court ruled against Genius, saying that their claims were preempted by copyright law. The case is now heading to the Supreme Court, where Genius is arguing that the Second Circuit went against most other circuits and Google argues that Genius is trying to use a contract to invent a new right.

2: DaBaby Facing Copyright Lawsuit Over His No. 1 Hit “Rockstar”

Next up today, Brad Callas at Complex reports that DaBaby is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit over his 2020 hit Rockstar.

The lawsuit was filed by music producer Chraig Mims, who performs under the name Juju Beatz and named multiple defendants besides DaBaby in the case. According to Mims, the song is an infringement of his composition Selena, which he claims to have given to the defendants and that they accessed it more than 40 times in late 2019 and early 2020.

Mims is seeking $150,000 in statutory damages per infringement. DaBaby, for his part, has not responded to the lawsuit.

3: Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ copyright Lawsuit Dismissed After 5 Years

Finally today, Nicki Cox at Page Six reports that Taylor Swift has settled a long-running lawsuit over her 2014 song Shake it Off as she reaches a settlement in the case.

The lawsuit was filed five years ago by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who claimed that Shake it Off was an infringement of their 2001 song Plays Gon’ Play. The case was headed for a trial in the coming weeks, but now both sides have moved for the case to be dismissed, citing a settlement.

The terms of the settlement are not known, and neither side had any comment about the deal.

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