Judge In Absolute Bullshit Copyright Case Against Mariah Carey Signals She’s Leaning Carey’s Way
from the just-in-time-for-xmas dept
As the saying goes, the arc of morale judgment is long, but it does bend towards justice. And even if we accept such an optimistic worldview is relevant in this year of our lord, 2024, that certainly doesn’t mean we can’t bitch about how long that damned arc is. It’s been over two years since Mariah Carey was sued for copyright infringement by Andy Stone, accusing her of infringing upon his own song All I Want For Christmas Is You. As Mike laid out in great detail in that original post, the entire lawsuit is a complete mess. The copying that Stone alleges amounts to two things: the title of the song and its theme. Neither of those are protected elements as far as copyright law is concerned. But that wasn’t the only issue.
Other problems for the suit are legion. Stone’s accusation against Carey would apply to his own song as well, given how it has the same similarities he’s suing over as a Carla Thomas song from 1963 titled, you guessed it, All I Want For Christmas Is You. The suit was filed in Louisiana for… reasons? None of that is laid out in the complaint and none of the parties reside there. The filing itself referenced exhibits that Stone’s lawyers appear to have forgotten to include in the complaint initially. And all of that is under the umbrella of this suit having been filed decades after Carey’s song was released. For tens of years this wasn’t a problem, but now Stone would please like $20 million.
He’s not going to get it. Mike said as much in that first post, but now the judge in the case is considering motions for summary judgment and is signaling where she’s leaning on the matter.
A federal judge on Thursday said she will likely dismiss a copyright lawsuit filed by Vince Vance, of the country music novelty act Vince Vance & the Valiants, against pop icon Mariah Carey over the perennial hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
U.S. District Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani said that she didn’t think Vance had shown that the two songs had similarities that were protected by copyright law.
So this thing is almost certainly dead in the water. I have yet to see a judge put out these warning signals in cases like these only to reverse them later. And, for their part, Carey’s lawyers have already filed for sanctions against Stone’s lawyers for some of their behavior, such as filing a motion for summary judgment that is “legally frivolous” and for trying to use expert testimony at this early a stage.
Which leads to the obvious question that we also had in our original post: will the ultimate outcome of this actually be Stone paying legal fees to Carey for all of this trouble? It’s sure hard to see how that won’t happen at this stage, with the entire output of Stone and his legal team being so downright silly.
So, while I hope Carey once again gets her “you” for Christmas this year, perhaps she’ll get a little monetary present under the tree as well.
Filed Under: all i want for christmas is you, andy stone, christmas songs, copyright, mariah carey, vince vance
Comments on “Judge In Absolute Bullshit Copyright Case Against Mariah Carey Signals She’s Leaning Carey’s Way”
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I partly blame the lawyer for not telling the client he had no case but with how some judges are in the US just now it’s kind of a dice roll.
Re:
How else is the lawyer going to make money—providing good legal advice? Pfft!
I was gonna say, when I first heard of the case, my dad had a big ol’ collection of blues records when I was a kid, before either of these songs was recorded, and I remember “All I want for Christmas is you”
“Sorry, he still can’t make it home for Christmas, but he did get you this nicely wrapped and framed copy of the judgement”
In times like these
It’s worth remembering that the man who told us about the arc of the moral universe, was right. When he said that, racial segregation was the law throughout the south. Now, it isn’t. That change was in living memory, and some people resent it still. So we make three steps forward, and two steps back. And bit by bit… we advance.
De minimis and therefore too short to be protectable by copyright. If Stone felt that badly about it, he should have tried for a trademark, but I doubt he’d get one for a song title.
The theme of a song is the idea underlying it, and as anyone should know (and maximalists like Stone should learn), an idea is also not protectable by copyright, only the expression thereof.