Three songwriters have asked a judge to dismiss their copyright lawsuit over BTS’ chart-topping single “Swim,” less than four months after filing it.
The case, filed in July against BTS label HYBE, argued that “Swim,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 this spring as the lead track from ARIRANG, contained many “substantial similarities” to an unpublished demo of the same name by three little-known songwriters. The plaintiffs said the song was “copied in very large part” from that demo.
Dismissal request filed#
On Wednesday (Nov. 4), attorneys for the three accusers, Steve Cooper, Jon Sandler and Greylyn Johnson, asked the judge in a court filing to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety.
Court documents did not show whether a settlement had been reached. Neither side immediately responded to requests for comment. The case was still at an early stage, and HYBE’s attorneys had not yet formally responded to the complaint.
The allegations#
In the July complaint, the three accusers said they had sent copies of their demo in March 2025 “to various parties for them to consider.” That allegedly included executives at Artist Publishing Group, who the plaintiffs claimed “listened to the [demo] and shared it with others,” including some of the songwriters who eventually worked on “Swim.”
After noticing the alleged similarities, the plaintiffs said they hired a forensic musicologist. The musicologist concluded that the BTS version contained numerous elements that were “unequivocally taken” from the demo.
“Upon listening several times [to “Swim”], plaintiffs came to what they considered to be the obvious and inescapable conclusion that [it] copied in very large part the original work and clearly infringed their copyrights,” lawyers for the trio wrote at the time.
Named defendants#
The lawsuit did not name BTS or its members as defendants. It targeted HYBE and its subsidiaries, HYBE America and Big Hit Music Co., and also named the songwriters behind the track. They included former OneRepublic member Ryan Tedder, a Grammy-winning songwriter who has also written songs for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Adele.
Similar cases#
Quick withdrawals are not unusual in large copyright cases over chart-topping hits. Last week, a case filed against Drake over his No. 1 single “Janice STFU” was dropped by the accuser less than two weeks after it was first filed.
