Mariah Carey sued for copyright in $20m ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ lawsuit
Pop singer Mariah Carey is to be sued for a sum worth £16m for allegations of copyright infringement over her smash hit All I Want for Christmas Is You.
Songwriter Andy Stone has launched a lawsuit, naming Carey and her co-writer Walter Walter Afanasief, almost thirty years after the festive song was released.
Stone claims that Carey and her team “knowingly, wilfully, and intentionally engaged in a campaign” to infringe his copyright.
The songwriter argues he co-wrote a song with the same title and did not grant permission for its use, legal documents filed at a US district court in Louisiana allege.
Although the two tunes feature different subject matter and melodies, Stone has accused Carey and Afanasieff of actions that were intended to “exploit the popularity and unique style” of his own work.
The band Vince Vance and the Valiants recorded and released the other song in question in 1989, with the similarities between the two tunes causing “confusion”, legal documents claim.
Carey and her co-writer are accused of “acts of unjust enrichment by the unauthorised appropriation of [the] plaintiff’s work and the goodwill associated therewith”.