California judge, Monica Ramirez Almadani has shared that she is inclined to grant Mariah Carey's request for dismissal of a lawsuit that was filed against her in November, 2023, as per Rolling Stones. The lawsuit claimed that her popular Christmas song, All I Want for Christmas is You has been taken from another song of the same name.
Carey first released the track in October 1994, as the first single from her Merry Christmas album and the track is one of the most popular holiday songs.
In 2022, Mississippi artist Vince Vance filed a copyright lawsuit against Mariah Carey claiming that Carey's blockbuster All I Want For Christmas is You infringed upon his 1989 song of the same name. Vance sought $20 million from the lawsuit but ended up dropping it in November, 2022.
One year later, he refiled the lawsuit in November 2023 with the same accusations but adding greater details. The artist also added co-plaintiff Troy Powers, who claimed to have co-written his song.
"Carey has without licensing, palmed off these works with her incredilous origin story, as if those works were her own. Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn't believe the story she has spun. This is simply a case of actionable infringement."
The new lawsuit highlights the similarities between the two songs while noting "unique linguistic structure" and claims that Carey's song is a "greater than 50% clone of Vance's original work."
Mariah Carey's response to infringement lawsuit explored
In January, 2024, Mariah Carey, while responding to the infringement lawsuit with her label Sony Music, her song's publisher Universal Music Group, told the court that her hit and Vince Vance's song are "completely different", while calling the claim, "outrageous and insulting."
Mariah Carey also argued that Vance's band's song was copied from Bobby Vinton's 1964 hit My Heart Belongs Only Yo You.
Carey and her team in August, 2024, also argued that the artist's case for song-theft does not pass the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal's "extrinsic test for substantial similarity in protectable expression" which claimed that any similarities between the songs are coincidental. Carey also noted that the similarities brought out by Vance are "an unprotectable jumble of elements". Her lawyer, Peter Anderson argued that phrases such as "Santa Claus" and "mistletoe" are public domain.
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The plaintiff's lawyer, Gerald P. Fox noted that it is "not required" to show the song is "identical" or "virtual plagiarism" but that "a certain arrangement of notes has to be unique, or the melody, or any aspect of the composition that's copied or similar."
Judge Almadani is yet to issue a ruling on the case, and a date to when the ruling should be expected.
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