A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal her perennial megahit "All I Want for Christmas Is You" from other songwriters. Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani granted Carey's request for summary judgment on Wednesday, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory without going to trial. Songwriters Andy Stone of Louisiana—who goes by the stage name Vince Vance—and Troy Powers of Tennessee filed a $20 million lawsuit alleging that Carey's 1994 song, which has since become a holiday standard and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their country 1989 song with the same title.
Their lawyer, Gerard P. Fox, said in an email to the AP that he's disappointed. Fox said it is his experience that judges at this level "nearly always now dismiss a music copyright case and that one must appeal to reverse and get the case to the jury. 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." The suit by Stone and Powers said their song "contains a unique linguistic structure in which 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, Ramírez Almadani agreed with those from the defense, who said that the writers employed common Christmas cliches that existed prior to both songs and that Carey's song used them differently. Carey's Christmas colossus has become an even bigger hit in recent years than it was in the 1990s. It has reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart the past six years in a row—measuring the most popular songs each week — not just the holiday-themed—by airplay, sales, and streaming.
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