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A US FEDERAL judge has ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal her perennial seasonal hit All I Want for Christmas Is You from other songwriters.
Judge Monica Ramirez Almadani, sitting in in Los Angeles, granted Carey’s request for summary judgment, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory without going to trial.
In 2023, Andy Stone – who goes by the stage name Vince Vance – and Troy Powers filed the $20m (€18.5m) lawsuit alleging that Carey’s 1994 song, which has become a Christmas standard and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their country 1989 song with the same title.
Their lawyer Gerard P Fox said he was “disappointed” by the ruling.
He said judges at this level “nearly always now dismiss a music copyright case and… one must appeal to reverse and get the case to the jury”.
Fox added: “My client will make a decision shortly on whether to appeal. We filed based on the opinions of two esteemed musicologists who teach at great colleges.”
Stone and Powers’ suit said their song “contains a unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one, and accordingly writes a letter to Santa Claus”.
They said there was an “overwhelming likelihood” that Carey and Afanasieff had heard their song – which at one point reached No 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart – and infringed their copyright by taking significant elements from it.
After hearing from two experts for each side, Judge Ramirez Almadani agreed with those from the defence, who said the writers employed common Christmas cliches that existed before both songs, and that Carey’s song used them differently.
She said the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing the songs are substantially similar.
The judge also ordered sanctions against the plaintiffs and their lawyers, saying their suit and subsequent filings were frivolous and that the lawyers “made no reasonable effort to ensure that the factual contentions asserted have evidentiary support”.
She said they must pay at least part of the defendants’ legal fees.
Carey’s Christmas colossus has become an even bigger hit in recent years than it was in the 1990s.
It has topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the past six years in a row by airplay, sales and streaming.
Carey and Afanasieff have had their own public disagreement – though not one that has gone to court – over who wrote how much of the song, but the case made them at least temporary allies.
Ain’t the media great to give these protests wall to wall coverage…
@Derek Durkin: Goddamn media reporting the news, despicable if you ask me.
@Diarmuid Hunt: yeah because that’s how the media works yeah….not too bright are we
@Derek Durkin: I didn’t say they weren’t selective. Nice ad hominem though.
If you choose to chain or glue yourself to objects, you should be left to protest unaided for 24 hours or at least until you toilet yourself.
@Mick Byrne: Do you really give a **** about what you claim to believe in?
@Mick Byrne: You’re only giving them ideas! Dirty protests are not unheard of in this country…
@Mick Byrne: And to ask what toilets do they use or do they tow mobile toilets with them.
Bunch of hypocrites should be all arrested
@Jim O Brien – TechBuzz Ireland: Arrested for protesting? Are you sure about that?
@Shakka1244: they’re breaching the peace so they can be arrested, there is nothing peaceful about pushing through a barricade and chaining yourself to a gate also it’s worth noting that assembly near or at the dail can be controlled or shut down under article 40 of the Constitution. At this stage their numbers are dwindling and they’re getting desperate for media attention, this little stunt just proves it. Sure their little March through Penneys on Mary street completely backfired, there was killings on Twitter because they came across as elitist and snobby.
@Peej: I think you’ll find that many could see that they weren’t elitist or snobby, more highlighting the abhorrent working conditions of the sweatshops used to fund the functioning capitalists who sell such items by mass production, shops like Penney’s capitalize on the detachment of works who are often as young as 12 brought from urban areas to big cities to be exploited for the good of the western consumer, whilst the big chains relish in the reward,.
Get in those lads the council employed . Seemed to work a dream
Arrest them all already. Waste of tax payers money. Right to free protest has long since passed
@Gareth Murran: Are you saying that anyone that protests should be immediately arrested? Since when did we become North Korea?
@Shakka1244: if XR on their manifesto are encouraging civil disobedience and not protests, by its very nature, their intention is to be arrested!! There is a difference between cd and protest.
@Jennifer Hampson: Yep, civil disobedience pretty much guarantees time in custody. It depends on whether enough people think the cause is worth it & if enough do, change will soon follow. Time will tell if they keep it up but if the climate keeps getting worse, it’ll only go one way.
I thought it already was an open house if you were in the know!!!!!!
Ruined a great event for the general public. And now the hippies will wonder why they ain’t getting support? Plant a hemp tree somewhere and smoke it when it finally is big enough.
TD are the one making the issue of carbon with this tax to handle the public deficit . Twenty per cent of that national debt made up of a deal made by a minister with IMF ad EU never laid before the Dail .
When did a minister get authority to treat his deal as law of land without consnet of Dail and Oireachtas ie legislation making deal part of law
and
How can TD vote on estiamte if the Dail has no control over what in kitty to spend whihc it does not until that deal laid beofe it by min?
Commission can serve notice on ireland to reduce that deficit (64.8 per cent in excess of the 60 per cent threshold under the Fiscal Compact Treaty per ntma report at end of 18 with loan of 44 billion from eu and uk ) as an DEBTOR to EU ??
TD complaining about not enuf spend are only putting us into deeper debt and only DAIL can change situation by TD having minister LAY that EU/IMF deal before the dail that will reduce deficit until DAIL approves terms by voting thru legislation making it part of law of state. Term that public spending complies with deficit rule but also public funds will cap bank cos share value fall cos of ECB policit we have no control over.
Minister have to acknowledge a debt cos min signed loan agreement .
But TD seem to want to have cake and eat it want to complain about govt , overspending or underspending but not taking control of the fund but seem to have no problem voting thru these estimate . Think it will carry on until voter tell local TD .. hey why isnt that deal before Dail? We elect U to be responsible for whats in kitty to spend not minister ?
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