It was just an idea: Copyright infringement claims against Mariah Carey and Pitbull

Unless you are a country music fan, perhaps, no doubt the song you immediately think of when the title “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is mentioned is Mariah Carey’s worldwide hit from 1994. Almost 30 years later, the country music artist Vince Vance and his co-writer sued Mariah Carey, her music publishing company Sony and others alleging that the Mariah Carey hit was an infringing copy of their song of the same name, which had been released 5 years previously in 1989. Following the same summary judgment procedure which was used in our previous article regarding the unsuccessful claim against Dua Lipa, (see here) the Judge had to decide whether the songs were substantially similar as a preliminary issue. The plaintiffs accepted that there had been other songs which used the same phrase as the title, but also relied on other similar lyrics which appeared in both songs, particularly the use of “underneath the Christmas tree”, a reference to “dreams come true”/”wish come true”, “just one thing” and “bring me what I need”/”bring me the one I really need”. The plaintiffs alleged that “In all, the infringed copyrighted lyrics account for approximately 50% of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’”, without explaining the maths behind that calculation. The plaintiffs also asserted that the chord progression and melodic similarities pushed that percentage “still higher”, but again without setting out the notes being compared, save to point out that both songs featured a minor sixth chord (the chord under the lyric “all that I want” in the Vance song, and the chord under the lyric “underneath the Christmas tree” in the Carey song, for example). That chord is often referred to as “the Christmas chord”, as it appears in many popular Christmas songs, such as White Christmas (the chord under the lyric “children listen”) and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (the chord under the lyric “better not cry”). They also relied on the same “unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one”. However, copyright cannot protect mere ideas or themes. It was therefore not surprising that the Judge struck out their claim for $20m. However, as the Judge had found that the plaintiffs had forced the defendants to “incur needless expenses responding to frivolous legal arguments and unsupported factual contentions”, she ordered them to pay an amount towards the defendants’ costs, for which the defendants have claimed $186,000. In the UK, costs orders are usually ordered in all cases, so potential claimants need to be even more careful before bringing court actions.

You can hear the two songs here:

Vince Vance and the Valiants

Mariah Carey

Note how similar the melody of the verse from the Vance song is to the earlier Bobby Vinton song, “My Heart Belongs To You”.

If you would like to consider the similarity of two songs which are currently the subject of separate litigation in the States, listen to these two songs, and see if you agree with the plaintiffs that the Pitbull song has infringed copyright in their song due to, in particular, the use of three descending notes at the start of the melodies (F#, F, E in “Samir’s Theme”, and G, F#, E in “I Feel Good”), as well as the similar rhythmic phrase and repeated synth notes which appear after about 15 seconds in both songs and are repeated throughout.

Samir’s Theme by DJ Debonair

I Feel Good by Pitbull