Mariah Carey to face lawsuit of $20 million over a seasonal smash hit
According to court filings, Mariah Carey has been sued in the United States for alleged copyright infringement on her global smash “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from 1994.
Andy Stone, a musician, claims he co-wrote and recorded a holiday song of the same name in 1989 but never obtained permission for it to be used.
Stone claims that Carey and her co-writer Walter Afanasieff “knowingly, wilfully, and purposefully engaged in a campaign to infringe” on his copyright in a lawsuit filed in Louisiana on Friday.
He is demanding $20 million in damages for alleged financial loss.
Carey’s song is one of the most popular music singles of all time, topping the charts in over two dozen countries and receiving a lot of airplay around the holidays.
It is featured significantly in the romantic comedy film “Love Actually,” which was released in 2003 and is set around the Christmas season.
Over the previous three decades, the song has sold an estimated 16 million copies worldwide, earning Carey an estimated $60 million in royalties.
Stone’s song, which he recorded with his band Vince Vance and the Valiants, charted on Billboard’s country music charts with minor success.
Despite the fact that the songs have the same titles, they sound and have different lyrics.
Carey and Afanasieff, on the other hand, are accused by Stone of attempting to “exploit the popularity and unique style” of his song by producing “confusion.”
“Defendants’ unauthorized use of the ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ in association with their exploitation of the derivative work acts to capitalize on the goodwill and unique talent of Plaintiff in an effort to obtain commercial advantage,” the suit says.
Stone’s action was brought about 30 years after Carey’s song was released, and it was unclear why.
Stone’s lawyers approached Carey and Afanasieff last year, according to the letter, but the parties were “unable to come to any agreement.”
A request for response from AFP was not immediately returned by Carey’s spokeswoman.
It’s not unusual for songs to have the same name. The United States Copyright Office’s website lists 177 works under the title “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
AFP
