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 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.
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 me” 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 re-recorded versions of 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.