Taylor Swift defeats Florida poet’s plagiarism lawsuit
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Taylor Swift was accused of copying details for her songs including Down Bad and I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK - A federal judge on July 6 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.
United States 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 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 the American singer’s album The Tortured Poets Department (2024).
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” under water.
The judge dismissed an earlier version of Marasco’s lawsuit in September 2025.
She said that where Marasco made new allegations, “the works are not even substantially similar – a point plaintiff effectively concedes by characterising the alleged copying as ‘paraphrase’, ‘rephrase’ and copying with ‘minor word substitutions’.”
The dismissal on July 6 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 American football team Kansas City Chiefs, at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on July 3. REUTERS
