Pop superstar Taylor Swift is facing a new copyright complaint. It alleges that she plagiarised the book that went with her album Lover from a self-published book of poems with the same name.
The legal experts called the case “highly questionable” and “unlikely to succeed”, reported Billboard. Swift’s book, a bonus included with the limited-edition Lover CD that the New York Times termed a “must-read companion” for Swifties, was allegedly plagiarised in a complaint made by author Teresa La Dart on Tuesday in federal court in Tennessee.
According to the lawsuit, Swift now pays “excess of one million dollars” in damages since her book violates La Dart’s copyrights.
“The defendants to this day have neither sought, nor obtained, a license from TLD of her creative design element rights, nor have they given any credit to TLD . let alone provided any monetary payments,” La Dart’s attorney William S Parks wrote in the complaint.
The complaint also stated that each work is a “recollection of former years immortalized in a combination of literary and graphical components”.
However, the ‘Blank Space’ singer has already been a part of copyright disputes. Her global hit song from 1989, ‘Shake It Off’ was the subject of yet another lawsuit.
According to the composers – Sean Hall and Nathan Butler – of 2001 song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’, sung by the girl group 3LW, Swift reportedly lifted lyrics for her own track. Even though the 2017 case was first rejected, it has since been revived on appeal.
Taylor most recently received the honour of becoming Record Store Day’s first-ever global ambassador. Besides, the Clive Davis Institute at New York University introduced a Taylor Swift course this year, where students will takea deep dive into the ‘I Know You Were Trouble’ singer’s career.
