$1 million lawsuit filed against Taylor Swift dropped
A poet who accused Taylor Swift of ripping off one of her books has dropped her $1 million lawsuit against the singer.
This video is no longer available.
A $1 million copyright lawsuit filed against Taylor Swift has been dropped.
The 'Cruel Summer' singer was facing legal action from Teresa La Dart, who alleged the 33-year-old pop star's 2019 book 'Lover', which accompanied her album of the same name, was ripped off from her own self-published collection of poetry, which was also named 'Lover'.
However, according to E! News, earlier this week, the writer filed to drop the lawsuit with prejudice,meaning it would be dismissed permanently.
In her original claim, which was filed in Tennessee in August 2022,Teresa alleged "design and textual elements" from her 2010 literary collection were copied into Taylor's book - which sold 2.9 million copies in the US - and thus infringed her copyright so she sought "in excess of one million dollars" in damages.
The writer also accused the 'Bad Blood' hitmaker of having borrowed a number of visual elements from her own book - including a cover featuring "pastel pinks and blues" and an image of the author "photographed in a downward pose" - and that both tomes had "substantially the same format of a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components."
Taylor's lawyer previously slammed the lawsuit.
Doug Baldridge said in a statement shared by Billboard: "This is a lawsuit that never should have been filed.
"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."
But Teresa's own lawyer insisted she had felt it "necessary" to take legal action.
William S. Parks responded at the time: "Miss La Dart has questions that will hopefully and eventually be answered regarding her perceived similarities between the two works.
"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."
