The owner of 'Peanuts' music from 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and more filed lawsuits over alleged unauthorized uses of Vince Guaraldi's score.
theme song and other music from the Charlie Brown franchise is going on the legal offensive, filing four copyright lawsuits Wednesday over alleged unauthorized uses of In one case, Lee Mendelson Film Productions accused a video game company called GameMill Entertainment of creating unlicensed songs that “mimicked and evoked” Guaraldi’s songs for an otherwise-licensedIn another case, the company accused the U.S. Department of the Interior of directly using Guaraldi’s “O Tannenbaum” from the soundtrack to“Unauthorized use doesn’t just violate the law, it erodes the exclusivity and artistic integrity that make these compositions meaningful to generations of fans,” said Mendelson attorney, who added that the company will “no longer tolerate companies using their property without a license, especially in this era of instant digital sharing.
”songs, including the unofficial franchise theme “Linus and Lucy,” in promotional social media advertisements.
“The composition is an iconic theme, associated with a beloved children’s series and television Christmas classic special,” Mendelson’s lawyers write. “It is widely familiar to the American public as one of the most popular works of television music of all time. ”comic strip was created by Charles M. Schulz in 1950, but the famous television specials were a joint project of Schultz, TV producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez.
Starting withThe rights to Guaraldi’s music are still held by the late Mendelson’s company, and they aren’t afraid to enforce them. In 2019, LMFP filedSnoopy & The Great Mystery Clubcharacters themselves — those rights are owned by a different company — but the lawsuit says it took a shortcut when it came to the music: Creating knockoff tracks that sounded highly similar to the originals.
“GameMill self-evidently wanted the Peanuts imagery in the game to be paired with the Peanuts music, but, equally self-evidently, did not want to pay plaintiff for rights to use it,” LMFP’s attorneys write in that complaint. The case against the Department of the Interior, meanwhile, claims that the federal agency used “Tannenbaum” in an animated Christmas card posted to Instagram, X and other social media sites.
“The card was viewed millions of times on many platforms,” reads that complaint.
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