BTS just watched a copyright fight over “Swim” sink before it ever reached the deep end.
Attorneys for songwriters Steve Cooper, Jon Sandler and Greylyn Johnson asked a federal judge on Wednesday (Nov. 4) to dismiss their lawsuit over the ARIRANG lead single in full, Billboard reported.
The trio filed the complaint on July 8 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, claiming the hit shared “substantial similarities” with an unreleased demo of their own, also titled “Swim.”
Their complaint said the demo was shopped around in early 2025 and leaned on a forensic musicologist’s comparison of melody, harmony, rhythm and lyrics. Those were allegations, never tested in court.
BTS members were not named as defendants. The suit targeted HYBE, its US arm and a roster of the song’s writers, including Ryan Tedder. Big Hit Music, which had called the claims one-sided and said “Swim” was created independently, had already been let out of the case in September, according to the court docket.
The case never got far. HYBE’s lawyers had not yet filed a formal response, and court papers did not make clear whether any settlement sits behind the withdrawal. Neither side immediately commented, per Billboard.
It is the second legal cloud over the BTS comeback era to clear in a matter of weeks. A separate, unrelated suit from songwriter Melissa Mais, which also took aim at ARIRANG material, was dismissed by a Virginia federal court on Oct. 22, with judgment entered for BTS and HYBE.
Chart-topping hits attract this kind of litigation like porch lights attract moths, and plenty of it fizzles quickly. For a song that debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, “Swim” now gets to be just that: a song, rather than a court exhibit.
