Los Angeles, Jul 28 (IANS): A $1 million copyright lawsuit filed against Canadian singer Taylor Swift has been dropped.
The 'Cruel Summer' singer was facing legal action from author Teresa La Dart, who alleged the 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'.
As per Billboard, in a motion filed in a Tennessee federal court, La Dart's lawyer said she would permanently drop the case.
The sudden voluntary dismissal, which appears to be unilateral and not the product of any kind of settlement, came after Swift's lawyers harshly criticised the lawsuit in their last filing. Demanding the case be dismissed, they said it was "legally and factually baseless" and "never should have been filed".
In her original claim, which was filed in Tennessee in August 2022, La Dart alleged "design and textual elements" from her 2010 literary collection were copied into Swift'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.
Released in four different versions, Swift's book included a total of 120 pages of personal diary entries, accompanied by photos selected by the singer.
La Dart also said that Swift borrowed a number of visual elements that mimicked her book and that both had "substantially the same format of a recollection of past years memorialised in a combination of written and pictorial components”.
As for the alleged similarities, they consisted of covers that both featured "pastel pinks and blues", as well as an image of the writer "photographed in a downward pose”.
In February, Swift’s lawyers said those elements were nothing more than commonplace features of almost any book, meaning they fall well short of being unique enough to qualify for copyright protection.
Taylor's lawyer Doug Baldridge said: "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."
The 'All Too Well' singer has faced multiple lawsuits over the last two years, including one for copyright infringement regarding her 2014 single, ‘Shake It Off’.