Taylor Swift has kept her seemingly limitless momentum going over the last two years. She took her Eras Tour across the globe, dropped a history-making concert film, and celebrated another smash release with 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department.
She’s also preparing to release her next album, The Life of a Showgirl, this Friday. Add in her highly anticipated and widely celebrated engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce last month, and it’s been a year of headlines both on and off the stage.
Now, another chapter of her story is closing in court. A judge just tossed out a major lawsuit against her.
Taylor Swift’s company called the now-dismissed allegations “entirely baseless”
The case was dismissed on Monday, September 29. The ruling came according to court documents obtained by Billboard.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Florida poet Kimberly Marasco. She accused Taylor of stealing lyrics for 15 of her songs. The tracks spanned across albums Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights, and The Tortured Poets Department.
Judge Aileen Cannon rejected the accusation. She ruled that Taylor probably never saw Marasco’s poems. She also said the lyrics were not substantially similar. Cannon added that Marasco did not own rights to the “common words” at the center of her claim.
“Plaintiff’s poems amount at most to ideas, metaphors, contexts, and themes — none of which is a proper subject of copyright protection,” Judge Cannon wrote.
The lawsuit cited Taylor’s use of words like “tears,” “yelling,” “running,” “fear,” “time,” “rain,” “sky,” “waves,” “cruel,” and “love.” But the judge dismissed that reasoning. She stated: “Plaintiff’s attempt to protect various words is equally unavailing. These common words alone are not copyrightable.”
Marasco also claimed that Taylor’s song “My Tears Ricochet” copied her poem “Beams of Light.” Judge Cannon found no real similarity. She wrote: “None of Plaintiff’s thirteen claims plausibly alleges an objective substantial similarity between Defendant’s songs and Plaintiff’s poems.”
The decision permanently dismissed claims against Taylor Swift Productions. However, Marasco has filed another lawsuit directly against Taylor that is still pending. Since it’s based on the same arguments, and before the same judge, experts say the chances of success are low.
Taylor’s lawyers have consistently called the lawsuit “utterly baseless” and based on “short phrases plucked from random spots.”
Judge Cannon also emphasized that even if the lyrics had resembled the poems more closely, Marasco would still have no claim. Common themes and ideas, the judge wrote, cannot be owned by anyone.
Neither Marasco nor a representative for Taylor commented following the ruling. For now, the superstar can turn her focus back to music, fans, and her prolific sourdough bread baking.
TELL US – DO YOU AGREE THAT KIMBERLY MARASCO’S LAWSUIT AGAINST TAYLOR SWIFT WAS BASELESS
