Taylor Swift is being sued by author Teresa La Dart for over a million dollars, claiming that Swift copied her 2010 self-published book of poetry, Lover. Within a complaint filed in a Tennessee court on August 23, 2022, La Dart accused Swift of stealing the cover design of her book, with the lawsuit claiming that someone on Swift’s team saw her text and decided to replicate the “vibe and design” of the book, reports The Daily Mail. The complaint also claimed that both works share the same exact title, and each shares the theme of being a recollection of the past years and memorializes those years. La Dart also claims the color scheme and style of the covers are too similar for it just to be coincidental. This lawsuit comes at an awful time, as Swift is also in another copyright lawsuit over her hit single “Shake it Off”.

Songwriters Nathan Butler and Sean Hall claim that Swift used lines from their 2001  song “Playas Gon’ Play”, performed by 3LW. This lawsuit was first filed in 2017, then was dismissed, but was reopened again on appeal. In a deposition, Swift denied stealing any lyrics. “I had never heard the song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’ and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW,” Swift said in her deposition. 

Whether or not these claims are legitimate, or are being used as an excuse for somebody to make some quick money is not fully known. Each side can be seen both ways, since the cover art for the album and book do look similar enough and share names, this can also be seen as a coincidence rather than full-on plagiarism.