Taylor Swift defeats Florida poet’s plagiarism lawsuit

A federal judge on Monday has dismissed a lawsuit accusing the newly married pop megastar Taylor Swift of plagiarising phrases from a Florida woman’s poems for more than a dozen songs.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon said the plaintiff, Kimberly Marasco, failed to show that her poems constituted protectable expression, or that Swift had seen the poems and that an average person would deem her songs substantially similar.

Marasco represented herself. Reached by email, she said she disagreed with the decision and will appeal.

Lawyers for Swift and the other defendants, including Republic Records and Universal Music Group, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Swift, 36, was accused of copying details from Marasco’s poetry books for songs including Down Bad and I Can Do It with a Broken Heart, both from Swift’s 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department.

But the judge said any commonality between Marasco’s poems and Swift’s songs consisted only of “unprotectable ideas, themes, metaphors, and isolated words”.

Cannon gave many illustrations, including confronting adversity, being “gaslighted”, and being “submerged” underwater.

The judge dismissed an earlier version of Marasco’s lawsuit last September.

She said that where Marasco made new allegations, “the works are not even substantially similar — a point plaintiff effectively concedes by characterizing the alleged copying as ‘paraphrase[s],’ ‘rephrase[s],’ and copying with ‘minor word substitutions'”.

Monday’s dismissal was with prejudice, meaning Marasco cannot amend her complaint. Cannon’s chambers are in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Swift married Travis Kelce, also 36, the star tight end for football’s Kansas City Chiefs, at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on July 3.