Taylor Swift responds to copyright claim over Lover book similarities

completemusicupdate.com:

Taylor Swift has hit back at a lawsuit filed by writer Teresa La Dart over similarities between a book of poetry written by the latter and a publication that accompanied the deluxe version of the former’s 2019 ‘Lover’ album.

The lawsuit is, says Team Swift, “legally and factually baseless”.La Dart sued last year accusing Swift of ripping off various creative elements of her 2010 poetry book, which was also called ‘Lover’.The lawsuit claimed that the earlier ‘Lover’ poetry book and the later ‘Lover’ album book had “a substantially similar cover format”, “substantially the same introduction page formats with a similarly styled ‘Lover’ title”, “a substantially similar inner book design” and “a substantially similar colour scheme (pastel pinks and blues)”.“Stylistically”, La Dart’s lawsuit concluded, “the Swift ‘Lover’ book includes creative elements that are not typical of or present within other published books and – as compared with the La Dart work – leaves an overall impression that the Swift ‘Lover’ book is, again, substantially similar in terms of the above-noted design elements as those within the La Dart work”.That was all well and good, but are any of the creative elements shared by the two ‘Lover’ books actually protected by copyright?

No, says Swift’s formal response. “These allegedly-infringing elements, each a generic design format, are not subject to copyright protection”, a legal filing submitted to the court last week states. “Thus, defendants could not possibly have infringed plaintiff’s copyright”.Even if these elements did enjoy copyright protection under US law, there is copyright registration in the US and, Swift’s filing goes on, “plaintiff’s copyright registration does not cover [these elements] and.