from the begone-grinch dept
It appears that Mariah Carey got a very late Christmas present this year. Several years ago, Carey was sued by Andy Stone over Carey’s hit holiday song, All I Want For Christmas Is You. The whole lawsuit was a complete mess. The fact it was filed in a Louisana court made no sense. The suit referenced evidence that was apparently not included in the filing. It was filed decades after the release of Carey’s song. Oh, and the claim of copyright infringement itself appeared to be due to the titles of both songs being the same combined with a bunch of unprotectable thematic elements. Neither, of course, are protectable elements when it comes to copyright law.
The $20 million copyright suit appeared destined for failure several months ago, when the judge signaled publicly that she was leaning Carey’s way. The only real question appeared to be whether Stone was going to be forced to pay Carey’s legal fees for wasting her time with this. In her summary judgment ruling, the judge presiding over the case both finds in Carey’s favor and, indeed, orders Stone to pay her legal fees.
U.S. District Judge Monica Almadani in Los Angeles in a ruling on Wednesday said the writers of Vince Vance and the Valiants’ “All I Want for Christmas Is You” failed to show their song was objectively similar enough to Carey’s to support their copyright infringement case.
Almadani determined on Wednesday that the songs were not similar enough for a jury to find that Carey had committed copyright infringement, citing differences in their melodies, lyrics and other musical elements. Almadani also ordered the songwriters to pay part of Carey’s attorneys’ fees, finding some of their filings contained a “litany of irrelevant and unsupported factual assertions.”
While that punishment is certainly just, it remains infuriating that the legal team that represented Stone will essentially escape any consequences beyond the reputational. I can’t expect every musician out there to be well enough versed in intellectual property law to navigate what are protectable elements and what aren’t. It would be nice if such artists would marry up the importance they place on copyright law with a passion for actually understanding it, but that is wishful thinking.
Lawyers, on the other hand, have no excuse. The participation of attorneys in this stinker of a lawuit is silly. They ought to have known from the jump that this lawsuit was destined for failure. So why did they take the case on?
And why can’t there be real tangible consequences for having done so?
Filed Under: all i want for christmas, andy stone, copyright, mariah carey, vince vance
