Taylor Swift Sued For $1 Million Over ‘Lover’ Album Artwork and Book
Taylor Swift is facing another lawsuit. This one alleges that she ripped off a book that accompanied her 2019 Lover album from a self-published book of poems under the same name.
In a complaint filed in a Tennessee federal court on Tuesday (August 23), author Teresa La Dart claimed that “design and textual elements” from her 2010 book Lover were copied into Swift’s book. According to legal documents, obtained by E! News, La Dart’s lawyers claim that Swift’s book infringes La Dart’s copyrights. La Dart says that Swift owes the author an “excess of one million dollars” in damages.
La Dart claims the books are “substantially the same format of a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components.” The alleged similarities include covers that both feature “pastel pinks and blues,” as well as an image of the author “photographed in a downward pose.” In the complaint, La Dart adds that the inner book design, specifically the “interspersed photographs and writings,” also infringed her copyrights.
See a side-by-side comparison of the books below:
Taylor Swift is being sued by an author who claims she copied her 2010 poetry book ‘Lover’ with her 2019 album book.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 24, 2022
The author is asking for over $1 million as she claims the style of the photos, color scheme and content of the books are similar. pic.twitter.com/suGsNwxaHT
Swift has been dealing with multiple lawsuits as of late. One of them accuses of the singer of plagiarizing the lyrics for 3LW’s “Playas Gon’ Play.” Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler alleged that Swift stole the lyrics “Playas gon’ play / And haters, they gon’ hate” lines from the 2001 song to use in “Shake It Off:” “‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”
However, Swift claims that she didn’t even know the song existed saying, “The first time I ever heard the song was after this claim was made.” The “Look What You Made Me Do” singer denied stealing any lyrical content, using childhood stories to support her point. “I recall hearing phrases about players play and haters hate stated together by other children while attending school in Wyomissing Hills, and in high school in Hendersonville,” Swift said.
She argued that these popular phrases had inspired lyrics for the song, pointing out that it was unrealistic for people to claim ownership of sayings that are universal in society. “I also recall hearing similar player and hater phrases in many songs, films and other works prior to ‘Shake it Off,’” she said.
Taylor Swift Slams Dude Who Accuses Her Of Not Writing Her Own Music
