The copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift and the art used on her 2019 album Lover has been dismissed. In March of 2022, author Teresa La Dart filed a copyright lawsuit against Swift, claiming that the pop star stole the design of her 2010 poetry book Lover for the companion book to her album of the same name.
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On Thursday (July 27), La Dart dropped the case against Swift in a Tennessee federal court. The dismissal was voluntary, not the result of a settlement, and came after Swift’s lawyers criticized the lawsuit, calling it “legally and factually baseless,” and demanded that it be dismissed.
In the initial filing, La Dart accused Swift of copying “a number of creative elements” from her 2010 poetry book for her 2019 Lover book, including “pastel pinks and blues” — also featured on the album. La Dart added that Swift used “a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components” including “interspersed photographs and writings.”
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La Dart also claimed that Swift owed her more than one million dollars in damages. In a previous report, Swift’s lawyers claimed that La Dart was suing Swift over stock elements that could not be exclusive to any one author. “This person might as well sue anyone who’s ever written a diary or made a scrapbook,” said the lawyers.
Swift’s Lover book was originally released in 2019, along with a special edition CD of the album. Released in four versions, the book includes 120 pages of photographs selected by Swift, along with personal diary entries.
“This is a lawsuit that never should have been filed,” said Swift attorney Doug Baldridge in February 2023. “These allegedly-infringing elements, each a generic design format, are not subject to copyright protection. Thus, defendants could not possibly have infringed plaintiff’s copyright.”
William Parks, an attorney for La Dart, responded to Swift’s attorney and defended his client’s case. “Miss La Dart has questions that will hopefully and eventually be answered regarding her perceived similarities between the two works,” said Parks at the time. “Unfortunately, she felt it necessary to bring this suit in order to possibly obtain such answers. We will see how the judge decides at this point.”
In March of 2023, Swift’s lawyers called La Dart’s allegations “entirely meritless” and “woefully deficient,” according to a report, and requested a dismissal.
Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images
