More than two years since Mariah Carey sued for allegedly stealing her perennial holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” a California judge said she feels “inclined” to grant Carey's request to dismiss of the proposal.
The legal saga dates back to the summer of 2022, when Mississippi artist Vince Vance (real name Andy Stone) filed a copyright lawsuit, claiming that Carey's seasonal blockbuster infringed on the 1989 song of the same name. Vance sought $20 million from the lawsuit, but ultimately dropped the case in November.
A year later, in November 2023, the lawsuit was refiled with the same basic allegations, albeit with more details, and the addition of co-plaintiff Troy Powers, who claims to have co-written the earlier song.
“Carey has, without permission, removed these works with her incredible origin story as if these works were her own,” Vance's lawyers wrote in the complaint. “Her hubris knows no bounds, even her co-certified songwriter doesn't believe the story she's told. This is simply a case of prosecutable infringement.”
The new lawsuit went into more detail about the similarities, noting “unique linguistic structure” and specific musical elements, and claiming it's “over 50% clone of Vance's original work.”
Last August, Carey's legal team asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, noting that Vance's claims fail the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' “extrinsic test for substantial similarity in protected expression” — essentially arguing that any similarities between the two songs are symptomatic.
Now, like Rolling Stone reports, US District Court Judge Monica Ramirez Almadani says she is “inclined” to grant that request. In addition, Almadani said it is “seriously considering” granting a related motion filed by Carey's team seeking sanctions against the plaintiffs for what it says is a “frivolous” filing.
In his argument, Gerald P. Fox, the attorney for the plaintiffs, noted that they are “not required” to show that the song is “identical” or “likely plagiarized,” but rather that only “a certain arrangement of notes must be unique , or the melody, or any aspect of the composition which has been copied or similar'.
Carey's lawyer, Peter Anderson, argued that the similarities identified by musicologists hired by the plaintiffs amounted to phrases such as “Santa Claus” and “gistletoe” – lyrics that Carey's team claimed were in the public domain.
“These are coincidental similarities. Five or so Christmas tropes that make these Christmas songs,” Anderson claimed. “The important thing is that there are eight or nine other Christmas tropes in their work that don't appear in ours. And eight or nine in ours that are not visible in theirs.”
Judge Almadani has not yet ruled on the case and has not indicated when a ruling is expected. It was first released in October 1994 as Carey's first single Merry Christmas The album “All I Want for Christmas is You” is one of the most popular holiday songs in history. For the past four years, it has re-entered the No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 over the holiday season.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-copyright-lawsuit-1235823121/
