Taylor Swift Hit With Hefty Copyright Lawsuit Involving 'Lover' Journals
Author Teresa La Dart says the singer copied elements from her poetry collection under the same name.
Taylor Swift may be gearing up to battle yet another copyright infringement lawsuit in court; Teresa La Dart, a poet and author, has filed a new suit against the singer, claiming that the Target-exclusive journals that accompanied her seventh studio album, Lover, ripped off La Dart’s 2010 poetry book of the same name.
According to documents obtained by Parade, La Dart claimed that Swift’s journals “included a number of creative elements that copied the expressive designs and arrangements” of her own collection of poetry. Basically, she thinks Swift copied the aura of her book, from the color scheme to the photography arrangements to the reflection on the past.
Swift produced four different editions of the journal, each containing different scans of entries from her childhood journals, handwritten song lyrics, and photographs arranged somewhat like a scrapbook at the beginning and end of the first section. The second half of each book contains blank journal pages and the cover of the journals match the cover on the correlating album.
La Dart has alleged that Swift’s Lover book, which claims all creative credits for Swift, includes “substantially” similar formats, including the “recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components,” introduction pages and titles, color schemes, photography poses and backgrounds, and the arrangement of “interspersed photographs and writings throughout.”
La Dart has requested a trial by jury and is seeking to recuperate all of the profits Swift made allegedly using her work, which she believes to be in excess of one million dollars.
Swift has yet to respond to the allegations, but La Dart’s lawyer told Pitchfork, “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."
Talk about cutting it down to the wire. Can Swift catch a moment of peace? She needs time to focus on her music, after all.
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