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More than two years since Mariah Carey was hit with legal action for allegedly stealing her perennial holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, a California judge has said she feels “inclined” to grant Carey’s request for the motion to be dismissed.
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The legal saga dates back to the summer of 2022, when Mississippi artist Vince Vance (real name Andy Stone) filed a copyright lawsuit, claiming that Carey’s seasonal blockbuster infringed upon his 1989 song of the same name. Vance sought $20m from the lawsuit but ultimately dropped the case that November.
One year later, in November 2023, the lawsuit was refiled with the same basic accusations, though with greater detail added, and the addition of co-plaintiff Troy Powers, who claims to have co-written the earlier song.
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“Carey has without licensing, palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own,” Vance’s lawyers wrote in the complaint. “Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn’t believe the story she has spun. This is simply a case of actionable infringement.”
The new lawsuit went into further details about the similarities, noting “unique linguistic structure” and specific musical elements, and claiming it’s a “greater than 50% clone of Vance’s original work”.
This past August, Carey’s legal team requested the lawsuit be dropped, noting that Vance’s claims fail the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s “extrinsic test for substantial similarity in protectable expression” — essentially arguing that any similarities between the two songs are coincidental.
Now, as Rolling Stone reports, U.S. District Court Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani says she’s “inclined” to grant that request. Furthermore, Almadani has stated she is “seriously considering” granting a related motion filed by Carey’s team requesting sanctions against the plaintiffs for what is alleged to be a “frivolous” filing.
In his argument, Gerald P. Fox, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, noted it is “not required” they show the song is “identical” or “virtual plagiarism”, but rather that only “a certain arrangement of notes has to be unique, or the melody, or any aspect of the composition that’s copied or similar”.
Carey’s lawyer, Peter Anderson, argued that the similarities that have been identified by musicologists hired by the plaintiffs amount to phrases such as “Santa Claus” and “mistletoe” – lyrics which Carey’s team have claimed are public domain.
“These are random similarities. Five or so Christmas tropes that make these Christmas songs,” Anderson claimed. “Importantly, there are eight or nine other Christmas tropes in their work that don’t appear in ours. And eight or nine in ours that don’t appear in theirs.”
Judge Almadani has not yet issued a ruling on the case, and has not indicated when a ruling is expected.First released in October 1994 as the first single from Carey’s Merry Christmas album, “All I Want for Christmas is You” is one of the most popular holiday songs in history. For the past four years, it has re-charted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the holiday season.
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Appearing on an episode posted Thursday (Nov. 7), the singer found her body turning against her as the series’ famously intense hot sauces got increasingly spicy. Her nose started running, she couldn’t help but let out several screams of anguish and she furiously struggled to quell the pain with ice cream and ice cubes before joking that the wings were “going to kill me.”
After coming to that realization, ROSÉ looked into the camera and shared some heartfelt “last words” with her beloved canine, whom, she explained earlier in the video, was named after actor Tom Hanks. “Hank, I love you so much,” she said as off-camera violins swelled and a photo of the dog appeared onscreen. “I hope I survive this, but if I don’t ever see you again, I love you — just know that.”
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Of course, the New Zealand native did make it out of the Sean Evans-hosted series alive, but not before admitting: “This is hurting my ego … I thought I’d be better.” Elsewhere in the clip, ROSÉ spoke about her “raw and honest” upcoming debut solo album rosie and explained what unites her and BLACKPINK bandmates JENNIE, JISOO and LISA.
“The one thing that’s so strong about BLACKPINK is the fact that each one of us, we want such big things for ourselves and we work so hard everyday,” she said on the latter subject. “I’ve never seen someone that’s just like, ‘I just want to rest.’ Even if we’ve said that before, I don’t think anyone means that. BLACKPINK is really hardworking.”
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As the star explained to Evans, “APT.” was inspired by a Korean drinking game of the same name. “It’s one of many drinking games, but that seemed to be the one that all my friends in the studio were like vibing to,” ROSÉ said on Hot Ones. “I was like, ‘Huh, this is interesting’ … I was really lucky enough to have Bruno jump on it. Craziest experience of my life.”
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