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Taylor Swift has been sued in yet again. Poet and author Teresa La Dart has filed a copyright lawsuit against Swift and has sought $1 million in damages. La Dart has claimed that Swift stole the design of her 2010 book titled Lover for a 2019 album of the same name.
The lawsuit was filed in Tennessee federal court on August 23, 2022. Pitchfork cited La Dart’s lawsuit. The lawsuit notes that “a number of creative elements” from her book Lover - a self-published collection of poems - were copied by Swift for her own book of the same name. The book came with a special edition CD release of her album Lover.
The author also claimed that Taylor Swift has copied several elements from the book apart from the title. She said that both the covers use "pastel pinks and blues" and have similar images of the author "photographed in a downward pose.” The covers of both the books are shown below.
Taylor Swift hit by copyright lawsuit for 2019 Lover book
The lawsuit alleges that someone on Swift’s team saw La Dart’s book and chose to replicate the book’s “vibe and design.”
The author also claimed that Swift even copied the book’s format of “a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components.” The lawsuit further noted that the inner design of the book was made up of “interspersed photographs and writings.”
In a statement to Pitchfork, La Dart’s lawyer said:
"It has been a bizarre day as this was filed less than 24 hours ago. Glad to provide some insight as many commentators seem to think this was poorly undertaken. Initially, it is important to note Miss La Dart feels strongly that her full work needs to be compared with that of Miss Swift’s before a conclusion is made here."
He further added:
"Secondly, this decision was not made nor taken lightly considering the other side is quite formidable. Lastly, this was a recent consideration and this filing was made ostensibly to reserve Miss La Dart’s rights (primarily at this point) since yesterday was the date the statute of limitations closed. Hope the masses can understand these issues from her perspective, in other words."
Taylor Swift has been accused of plagiarism in the past
The pop-star recently spoke about a separate lawsuit filed against her in 2017 for her song Shake It Off. She has been accused of plagiarizing 2001’s Playas Gon’ Play by the American pop trio 3LW.
The lawsuit was filed by 3LW songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler. The lawsuit was dropped in 2018 but was reopened again this year by an appeals panel.
In a statement, Taylor Swift noted that the lyrics to her song Shake It Off were written entirely by her.
Giving more insight into how the song was written, Taylor Swift said:
“In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music.”
Taylor Swift also asserted that she had not heard the 3LW song until the claim was made. Swift also argues noting that throughout her childhood, “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” were widely used aphorisms.
