By Frank Lovece, Newsday | Reworking a lawsuit he filed last year and then dropped, a songwriter is again alleging Mariah Carey’s perennial hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” infringes on his own song of that title released in 1989, five years before Carey’s.
In a complaint filed Nov. 1 at the Central District of California federal court, in Los Angeles, Andy Stone aka Vince Vance accuses Carey, her song’s co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, and related corporate entities of direct copyright infringement and unjust enrichment. Stone’s lawsuit last year contained those allegations as well as two others not in the current complaint. Additionally, the 1989 song’s co-writer, Troy Powers, has joined the new suit as a plaintiff.
“Beyond the lyrical hook ‘[a]ll I want for Christmas is you,’ Defendants directly copy and include the exact lyrics ‘I don’t need …’ presents ‘underneath the Christmas tree,’ ’’ reads the lawsuit, obtained by Newsday, adding that as in the 1989 song, “Carey implores Santa to ‘bring me the one thing I really need,’ an unnamed ‘you,’ to make their ‘wish come true.’ In all,” the suit contends, “the infringed copyrighted lyrics account for approximately 50% of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You.’ The chord progression and melodic similarities push this percentage of infringement still higher.”
Jay Ceravolo, manager of the decades-old Vince Vance & the Valiants, said in a statement to Newsday Monday, “We are moving forward to a financial conclusion either through settlement or a trial. It’s self-evident that over 50% of her words in the song are from Vince’s rendition. It is simply a case of copyright infringement.”
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Read the full article here:
https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/mariah-carey-lawsuit-all-i-want-for-christmas-tpvxwxff
Photo: Mariah Carey | https://www.facebook.com/mariahcarey
Mariah Carey Sued Again for Copyright Infringement Over ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’
