Taylor Swift accused of ripping off ‘Lover’ book design in $1M copyright lawsuit by obscure author
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Taylor Swift has been sued by little-known poet and author Teresa La Dart. Dart claims that Swift apparently stole the design of her 2010 book 'Lover' for her 2019 album by the same name, 'Lover'.
According to TMZ, in a new copyright lawsuit filed, La Dart stated that “a number of creative elements” from her book Lover which is 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."
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According to DailyMail, La Dart thinks the color scheme and style of the images used are too similar to be coincidental. However, in a response to Pitchfork, Dart's lawyer, William S Parks stated, "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." Swift and her law team have not yet responded to the new copyright allegation.
However, the singer is currently dealing with another copyright controversy, a plagiarism lawsuit from two songwriters: Sean Hall and Nathan Butler who claim 'Shake It Off' used lines from their 2001 tune 'Playas Gon' Play, which was performed by the girl group 3LW. The suit was initially filed in 2017, however, the case was not approved because a judge stated the lyrics were too generic, but the case was reopened on appeal.
However, Swift responded to the claims in a declaration given to Billboard, Taylor said that she never stole any lyrics from the 2001 song and added that she had never even heard of the group that released it. She said, "Until learning about Plaintiffs claim in 2017, I had never heard the song Playas Gon' Play and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW." Taylor further added, 'None of the CDs I listened to as a child, or after that, were by 3LW." She also added, "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. These phrases were akin to other commonly used sayings like 'don't hate the playa, hate the game,' 'take a chill pill,' and 'say it, don't spray it."