Concerning her massive 1994 ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ hit, Mariah Carey has won the copyright lawsuit.
Claiming that the superstar singer/songwriter stole the Christmas track from their 1989 song of the same name, in November of 2023, songwriters Troy Powers and Andy Stone – p/k/a Vince Vance – filed a copyright complaint in a Los Angeles federal court.
Requesting no less than $20,000,000.00 in damages, the latest lawsuit marked the second time lawyers for Stone had filed the complaint against Carey along with her co-writer Walter Afanasieff, and others.
On Wednesday (3.19,) U.S. District Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani decided that the songs were not similar enough for a jury to find the multi-Grammy having committed copyright infringement.
With an analysis by a musicologist, the judge explained that while both songs reference “commonplace Christmas song clichés”, the chord progressions and harmonic rhythms are “very different,” adding “Based on the foregoing, plaintiffs have not met their burden of showing that Carey and Vance are substantially similar under the extrinsic test.”
In addition to the copyright ruling, Judge Almadani criticized Stone and his attorneys for raising “frivolous legal arguments” and bringing up “irrelevant and unsupported statements of fact”. And, as a result, the plaintiffs have been ordered to repay some of the legal expenses Carey has since incurred in defending the claims.
At press time, representatives for the plaintiffs, Carey, and her label, Sony Music, have yet to comment on the case.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Heartfox