{"id":11108,"date":"2026-07-08T18:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/taylor-swift-copyright-accuser-appeals-dismissal-of-lyrics-theft-case\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T18:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:24:25","slug":"taylor-swift-copyright-accuser-appeals-dismissal-of-lyrics-theft-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/taylor-swift-copyright-accuser-appeals-dismissal-of-lyrics-theft-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift Copyright Accuser Appeals Dismissal of Lyrics Theft Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tIt ain\u2019t over quite yet: A self-published Florida poet who claimed Taylor Swift stole her words for her lyrics has filed a quick appeal after her copyright case was thrown out of court earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\n\tLess than two days after Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case by ruling that the only similarities between Kimberly Marasco\u2019s poems and Swift\u2019s songs were generic words and ideas, the litigious poet filed a notice Tuesday (July 7) that she would ask a federal appeals court to overturn the decision.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe appeal will add yet another chapter to a legal battle against the world\u2019s biggest pop star that has already dragged on for more than two years across two cases, both of which have now been summarily dismissed. Swift\u2019s attorneys have called the lawsuits \u201cabsurd\u201d and \u201charassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch appeals typically face long odds, particularly where, as Judge Cannon did, a court said the case was not a close call. Marasco\u2019s specific arguments will be made in later filings and were not made public in Tuesday\u2019s papers. A rep for Taylor did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (July 8).<\/p>\n

\n\tMarasco first sued Taylor\u2019s company (Taylor Swift Productions) in 2024, claiming the star had lifted lyrics to \u201cThe Man,\u201d \u201cMy Tears Ricochet,\u201d \u201cIllicit Affairs\u201d and many other songs from earlier poems. Then early last year, Marasco filed another case against Swift herself over largely the same allegations.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut both cases have now been dismissed on the grounds that none of the similarities in Swift\u2019s songs are the kind of things that can be protected under copyright law. In the ruling on Monday (July 6), Judge Cannon said the only overlaps were \u201cbasic ideas,\u201d like the concept of \u201cgaslighting,\u201d as well as \u201cubiquitous metaphors\u201d and \u201ccommon observations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese are quintessential themes, concepts, and isolated words \u2014 exactly the kind of material copyright law does not protect,\u201d the judge wrote in her decision, obtained and first reported by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cThe allegedly infringed material \u2014 basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases \u2014 is not protected expression and cannot be infringed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder federal court procedural rules, Marasco had 30 days to file her appeal. On Tuesday, she did so in less than 48 hours. \u201cPlaintiff seeks review of all rulings, findings, and conclusions adverse to her interests contained in that order and judgment,\u201d she wrote in her notice of appeal.<\/p>\n


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It ain\u2019t over quite yet: A self-published Florida poet who claimed Taylor Swift stole her words for her lyrics has filed a quick appeal after her copyright case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[956,782,294,429,575,2272,3029,3028,3708],"class_list":["post-11108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-accuser","tag-appeals","tag-case","tag-copyright","tag-dismissal","tag-lyrics","tag-swift","tag-taylor","tag-theft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}