The three songwriters who claimed BTS’s SWIM copied their demo have dropped their copyright lawsuit against HYBE.
Steve Cooper, Jon Sandler, and Greylyn Johnson filed a notice in the US District Court for the Central District of California on Wednesday (November 4) stating: “This action is dismissed by the Plaintiff(s) in its entirety.”
US District Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed the case without prejudice the same day and vacated all of its dates and deadlines.
“The Clerk of the Court shall close the case,” the November 4 order adds.
The dismissal comes less than four months after the songwriters filed their complaint on July 8.
Their original complaint named HYBE Co., HYBE America, HYBE Music Services, and Big Hit Music as defendants, along with the publisher Artist Publishing Group (APG) and seven of SWIM‘s credited writers, including Ryan Tedder.
The notice, filed by Clair G. Burrill, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, does not give a reason for the withdrawal.
None of the court filings made on November 4 says whether the two sides reached a settlement.
No court has ruled on whether BTS’s SWIM copied the plaintiffs’ work.
Because the case was dismissed without prejudice, Cooper, Sandler, and Johnson are not barred from bringing the same claims again.
The judge’s order cites Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i), which allows a plaintiff to drop a case without a court order. According to a note on the court’s form, a notice under Rule 41(a) “may be filed at any time before service by the adverse party of an answer or of a motion for summary judgment, whichever first occurs.”
The court clerk also filed a report the same day notifying the US Copyright Office of the order, as required under federal copyright law.
SWIM is the lead single from BTS’s album Arirang, which was released in March 2026.
The track debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving BTS their seventh chart-topper.
The plaintiffs alleged that it reproduced a composition of the same name that they wrote and completed as a demo in March 2025.
They claimed that they sent the demo to industry contacts that month, including APG representatives, who they alleged shared it with Derrick Milano, a songwriter signed to APG and one of SWIM‘s credited writers.
After listening to the BTS track several times, the plaintiffs came to what they considered “the obvious and inescapable conclusion” that it “copied in very large part” their work, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs hired a musicologist, Alexander Stewart, whose preliminary report, quoted in the complaint, referred to the BTS track as “BTS” and to the plaintiffs’ song as “SJG.”
“In my expert opinion, independent creation of BTS can be ruled out and copying is the inescapable conclusion,” Stewart wrote.
The songwriters sought an injunction, damages, and a share of the profits generated by BTS’s SWIM.
In the alternative, they asked to be credited as co-writers of “nearly all” of the BTS track and to receive nearly all of its profits.
BTS and its members were not named as defendants. Nor was HYBE producer Pdogg, who is credited as a writer of SWIM alongside BTS member RM.
HYBE’s Big Hit Music, which manages BTS, denied the allegations two days after the suit was filed.
“The allegations in the lawsuit are unilateral and unsubstantiated,” the label told MBW on July 10.
“‘SWIM’ is an independent creation. We will respond firmly through the appropriate legal process,” the BTS label added.
The plaintiffs had already dropped Big Hit Music from the case in September, according to South Korean outlet Sports Kyunghyang.
The outlet reported on October 22 that the plaintiffs filed a notice of voluntary dismissal as to the label on September 28, and that the court ended the case against it two days later.
According to the same report, the court had ordered the plaintiffs on October 20 to prove that four of the songwriter defendants had been served on time, or to show good cause by October 22 for failing to do so.
Sports Kyunghyang also reported that the deadline for some defendants to respond to the plaintiffs’ amended complaint had been extended to November 12.
The SWIM complaint was the third US copyright lawsuit filed against HYBE in two months.
In May, four Los Angeles songwriters sued HYBE, ADOR, and NewJeans over the 2024 single How Sweet, alleging it was built in part from a demo they had submitted and been told would not be used.
On July 7, New York publisher All Surface Publishing sued all three over the group’s 2023 track ETA, alleging that it copied elements of the 2005 dance track Samir’s Theme.
Eight days before the SWIM notice was filed, a songwriter who claimed the chorus of Drake’s Janice STFU was copied from his demo dropped his lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles.
Aviel Calev Hirschfield withdrew that case without prejudice on October 27, 11 days after filing it against Drake, his OVO Sound label, UMG Recordings, and Universal Music Publishing.Music Business Worldwide