Taylor Swift Sued Over Lover Book Design

Taylor Swift is being sued by poet and author Teresa La Dart, who claims that Swift stole the design of La Dart’s 2010 book Lover for the book accompanying Swift’s 2019 album of the same name. In a new copyright lawsuit filed in a Tennessee federal court and viewed by Pitchfork, La Dart says that “a number of creative elements” from her book Lover—a self-published collection of poems—were copied by Swift for her own Lover book, which came with the special edition CD release of her album. La Dart’s lawyer claims Swift owes her in “excess of one million dollars” in damages as a result.

The parts of La Dart’s book that she claims Swift copied include the same title, covers that use “pastel pinks and blues,” and images of the author “photographed in a downward pose.” La Dart alleges that Swift also copied the book’s “format” of “a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components” as well as the inner design being made up of “interspersed photographs and writings.” Find side-by-side photos of the two books below.

Pitchfork has reached out to Taylor Swift’s representative. La Dart’s lawyer shared the following statement with Pitchfork:

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. 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.

Earlier this month, Taylor Swift filed a motion in response to the ongoing 2017 copyright lawsuit claiming she stole the lyrics to her 2014 single “Shake It Off” from 3LW’s 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play.” Swift was adamant that “the lyrics to ‘Shake It Off’ were written entirely by [her]” and she had never heard the 3LW song prior to being sued.

Swift released “Carolina,” her contribution to the Where the Crawdads Sing soundtrack, over the summer. Last year, she put out the albums Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version). In 2020, Swift released Evermore and Folklore, her most recent albums of all-new original material.

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