There could be credence to Taylor Swift’s lyric, “There is nothing I do better than revenge,” after her representatives filed a lawsuit against a Utah theme park alleging employees that work there illegally perform some of her songs.
In court documents filed Monday, Swift alleges that Evermore Park is willfully engaging in copyright infringement by having two actors perform songs like “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me” and “Bad Blood.” Documents say those songs are copyrighted under Broadcast Music, Inc., one of the main performance rights organizations used by musicians.
The lawsuit alleges that two actors not only perform Swift’s copyrighted material, but others as well, in a section of the park known as “The Burrows.”
“These unlawful musical performances are marketed as a central attraction of Evermore Park,” the lawsuit states. “For instance, Evermore Park’s website advertises that visitors can ‘[c]reate fanciful music’ with Park actors and describes one of the Park’s main activities as ‘Musical Character Performances.’”
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that Evermore Park and its owner, Ken Bretschneider, have never had permission or license for its employees to perform any of Swift’s songs. Attached in the lawsuit are two 2019 letters from BMI to the theme park informing it that it is playing copyrighted songs and saying it owes licensing fees.
Swift filed the lawsuit in federal court in Nashville, Tenn. It comes three weeks after Evermore Park filed a trademark lawsuit saying Swift was profiting off the name “Evermore” — the title of her latest album — and causing “actual confusion” online. The theme park alleged trademark infringement.
Swift’s attorney’s called the theme park’s allegations “baseless.”
Evermore Park, a Pleasant Grove attraction where guests are “immersed in a fantasy European hamlet of imagination,” according to the park’s website, was created and founded by Bretschneider in 2018 and features costumed actors and performers.
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