Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You latest subject of song theft lawsuit

completemusicupdate.com:

Mariah Carey has been sued over her classic festive hit ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, which, musician Vince Vance now argues, infringes the copyright in a song he wrote of the same name.According to Vance’s lawsuit, filed last week, he co-wrote a song called ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ back in 1989, a version of which was recorded and released, enjoying “extensive airplay” in 1993.

Carey’s album ‘Merry Christmas’ – on which her song ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ appears – was then released by Sony label Columbia in 1994.

The latter track was co-written by Carey and producer Walter Afanasieff.Carey’s song – Vance’s lawsuit claims – was basically a derivative work based on his song.

But Carey and Afanasieff never got permission to adapt his earlier work in that way. Therefore they are infringing his copyright in the earlier song, as well as misappropriating his work by claiming they wrote the 1994 hit.Lawsuits of this kind usually have a section that explains how the creators of the later work would have had access to the earlier work, and then another section outlining just how similar the two songs are.