A lawsuit accusing pop superstar Taylor Swift of plagiarizing phrases from a Florida woman’s poems for over a dozen songs was dismissed by a U.S. federal judge on Monday. The judge ruled that the plaintiff, Kimberly Marasco, did not demonstrate that her poems were protectable expressions or that Swift had access to them and that an average person would find her songs substantially similar.
Marasco, who represented herself, expressed disagreement with the decision and plans to appeal. Legal representatives for Swift and the other defendants, including Republic Records and Universal Music Group, did not provide immediate comments on the matter.
The allegations claimed Swift copied details from Marasco’s poetry books for songs such as “Down Bad” and “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” from Swift’s 2024 album “The Tortured Poets Department.” However, the judge stated that any similarities between Marasco’s poems and Swift’s songs were limited to unprotectable ideas, themes, metaphors, and isolated words.
The judge highlighted examples like facing challenges, being “gaslighted,” and being “submerged” underwater. This dismissal marked a continuation from a previous dismissal of Marasco’s lawsuit in September for lack of substantial similarity between the works, as characterized by Marasco’s own allegations of paraphrasing and minor word substitutions.
The dismissal was made with prejudice, barring Marasco from amending her complaint. Taylor Swift, aged 36, married Travis Kelce, a star football player, at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on July 3.