Lawyers for Taylor Swift and Universal Music Group have asked a US federal court in Florida to dismiss a copyright lawsuit brought against them by a poet who claims that multiple songs by Swift ripped off her works.
Calling it a “frivolous and harassing lawsuit,” Swift’s lawyers urged Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss a case filed by Florida poet Kimberly Marasco, who earlier this year filed her second attempt at a copyright suit against Swift.
“Despite having no conceivable case against [Swift], and after being expressly informed by this court that her allegedly infringed ‘expressions’ are not protectable under copyright law, plaintiff filed yet another meritless lawsuit and expanded her groundless campaign to include defendants [Universal Music Group] and Republic [Records],” stated the motion, which was filed on December 4, and can be read in full here.
“Plaintiff’s claims are, as in her last lawsuit, absurd and legally baseless.”
Marasco first filed a lawsuit against Taylor Swift in May 2024. She alleges that numerous songs on four Taylor Swift albums, including The Tortured Poets Department, Lover, Folklore and Midnights, copied poems that Marasco published in two volumes, Dealing With A Chronic Illness, published in 2017, and Fallen From Grace, published in 2019 and later renamed Songs of the Unsung.
Marasco’s complaint identifies numerous songs that she claims copied from her works, including The Man, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?, My Tears Ricochet, Hoax, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, and others.
Marasco is representing herself in court, and her first lawsuit failed when she was unable to serve process papers to Swift. According to a report in USA Herald, Marasco said her process servers were unable to get past Swift’s security at numerous addresses. Lawyers for Swift argued she had gone about the task incorrectly, for instance by attempting to serve papers to an address under renovation, or while Swift was known to have been traveling.
In her second lawsuit, filed with the court in February, Marasco asked for damages of no less than $25 million. However, in an amended complaint (available here) filed in October, Marasco didn’t specify a number.
The second lawsuit also expanded the defendants in the case to include Republic Records and parent company Universal Music Group, as well as Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, both known for having co-written songs with Swift. However, Judge Cannon dismissed Dessner from the case last month, due to what the judge concluded was Marasco’s improper service of notice to the musician.
“Plaintiff’s claims are, as in her last lawsuit, absurd and legally baseless.”
Lawyers for Taylor Swift
While Marasco has argued that the similarities between her poems and the Swift songs “are so specific, unique and improbable that independent creation is unlikely,” lawyers for Swift argue there are no recognizable similarities, except for individual words or themes, which can’t be copyrighted.
“The concept of betrayal or the words ‘fire’ or ‘love’ cannot be owned by one person, as basic themes or words are not protectable by copyright law,” Swift’s lawyers wrote in the motion to dismiss.
Marasco has also filed a request for a preliminary injunction to stop streaming service Disney+ from airing The End of an Era, a documentary series about Swift’s The Eras Tour set to premiere on December 12.
The docuseries “will broadcast performances of the infringing works to millions of viewers worldwide, causing irreparable harm to plaintiff’s exclusive rights to her works,” Marasco’s motion stated. As of Monday (December 8), the court had not yet ruled on the injunction.
This isn’t the first time Taylor Swift has faced legal action over her works – and it’s not even the first time she was sued by a poet. In 2022, Teresa La Dart of Mississippi alleged that the companion book for Swift’s album Lover copied creative elements from La Dart’s 2010 self-published poetry collection, also called Lover.
La Dart dropped the case in 2023. Legal experts told Billboard that La Dart’s case was weak and she was facing potentially costly legal bills if she lost.Music Business Worldwide
