Lee Mendelson Film Productions, the company behind the classic ‘Peanuts’ TV specials, featuring good old Charlie Brown and Snoopy, have filed four lawsuits against entities that have used music from those programmes without permission, including the US government’s Department Of The Interior.
The distinct music from the original ‘Peanuts’ TV specials was composed, arranged and performed by jazz musician Vince Guaraldi. Three of the lawsuits, including the one against the US government, relate to the use of that music in social media posts.
Meanwhile the fourth centres on an official ‘Peanuts’ video game made by Gamemill which allegedly includes new music that was deliberately produced to sound like it was Guaraldi’s compositions.
Marc Jacobson, a legal rep for Lee Mendelson Film Productions - which is also publisher of Guaraldi’s ‘Peanuts’ compositions - says unauthorised use of that music “doesn’t just violate the law”, it also “erodes the exclusivity and artistic integrity that make these compositions meaningful to generations of fans”.
The new lawsuits, he adds, “convey that LMFP will no longer tolerate companies using their property without a licence, especially in this era of instant digital sharing” and that “the rights of creators and the protection of iconic cultural assets must be vigorously enforced”.
The US Department Of The Interior is accused of using Guaraldi’s specific arrangement of ‘O Tannenbaum’, which appeared in ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’, on a ‘digital holiday card’ posted to various social media platforms in the run up to Christmas.
The other two companies accused of using Guaraldi’s music in social media posts without permission are belt and bag seller Buckle-Down Inc, and Heritage Auctions, which calls itself the “world’s largest collectibles auctioneer”.
The fourth lawsuit against Gamemill is particularly interesting in that the gaming company did get a licence from Peanuts Worldwide LLC - which manages the rights in the characters devised by ‘Peanuts’ creator Charles M Schulz - in order to make its game ‘Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club’.
However, it didn’t get a music licence from LMFP. Yet, the lawsuit claims, GameMill did want the soundtrack to its Snoopy game to “evoke the Guaraldi compositions” and therefore it engaged musicians to “compose and record music that was very similar - but not identical - to the Guaraldi compositions”.
But so similar was the game’s soundtrack, LMFP reckons, its copyrights were infringed. The lawsuit continues, “upon information and belief, GameMill expected that most players of the game would not even realise that they were hearing anything other than the Guaraldi compositions, and perhaps even believe themselves to be hearing the actual ‘Peanuts’ recordings as performed by Vince Guaraldi”.