Author in ‘Bad Art Friend’ Feud Can’t Recover Attorneys’ Fees

Author Sonya Larson isn’t entitled to attorneys’ fees after defeating claims her story “The Kindest” unlawfully copied from an ex-friend’s Facebook post about donating a kidney, a federal court said Wednesday.

While Dawn Dorland Perry, the author of the Facebook post, didn’t ultimately prevail on the copyright claims, “it was not objectively unreasonable for her to bring them,” the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts said.

The feud between Larson and Perry was made famous by a 2021 article in The New York Times that took the internet by storm and had people taking sides in ...