The proprietor of the music of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and different “Peanuts” tv specials has filed 4 lawsuits towards defendants together with the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging they illegally used the jazzy ditties of pianist Vince Guaraldi in social media posts and a online game.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions filed the fits in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The defendants additionally embody a online game firm, an public sale home and a belt-maker.
One lawsuit argues the Interior Department didn’t have permission to make use of Guaraldi’s association of “O Tannenbaum” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in a digital vacation card posted to social media.
The division stated in an e mail to The Associated Press that it doesn’t touch upon litigation. Email messages in search of feedback from the opposite defendants weren’t instantly answered.
Another lawsuit alleges Heritage Auctions illegally used “Linus and Lucy” — the beloved non-Christmas track the children dance to in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that has turn into the de facto “Peanuts” theme — in posts on Facebook and Instagram selling an public sale of collectibles. Similar claims of social media misuse are available one other swimsuit towards Buckle-Down Inc, a belt firm that makes “Peanuts” themed merchandise.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions of Burlingame, California, was based by and is called for the producer who collaborated with “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz and director Bill Melendez to create the TV specials based mostly on Schulz’s caricature, beginning with 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Mendelson, who died in 2019, employed the jazz pianist Guaraldi to supply the mellow, typically melancholy music, together with “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Linus and Lucy.”
The firm determined to take the sweeping motion after what they stated was turning into an insupportable digital glut of unfair use of the music.
Attorney Marc Jacobson stated in an announcement that Lee Mendelson Film Productions “will no longer tolerate companies using their property without a license, especially in this era of instant digital sharing.” He stated “the rights of creators and the protection of iconic cultural assets must be vigorously enforced.”
Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the opposite characters, just isn’t a celebration in any of the lawsuits.
The fourth swimsuit alleges online game writer GameMill Entertainment, in its 2025 “Peanuts” online game Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club, violated copyright through the use of new music compositions meant to invoke Guaraldi’s items together with “Linus and Lucy” and “Skating.” The plaintiffs stated no permission was hunted for the music, and the copycat variations are too near the originals to not require it.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions is in search of various monetary damages from the completely different defendants, together with no less than $300,000 from GameMill. And in each case, the plaintiff is in search of a decide’s injunction that the alleged copyright violations instantly cease and never be repeated.
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