Thank God I Found You - Lawsuit

Lawsuit

On September 15, 2000, US songwriters Seth Swirsky and Warren Campbell filed a lawsuit against Carey at the 9th Circuit for copyright infringement, "reverse passing off" and false designation, claiming that "Thank God I Found You" borrowed heavily from a song they composed called "One of Those Love Songs". It was recorded by the R&B group Xscape in 1998 for their album Traces of My Lipstick. The lawsuit claimed that Carey wrongfully gave the songwriting credits to Jam and Lewis. Swirsky and Campbell had sold the rights of the song to So So Def Recordings in 1998. "I'm a fan of Mariah Carey; this is nothing personal against her. But I really do believe there's accountability, and it's very clear what happened here. I've never sued anybody before", Swirsky said. According to the district court, an expert witness (chair of the Musicology Department at the University of California at Los Angeles) determined that the songs shared a "substantially similar chorus". The expert stated that although the lyrics and verse melodies of the two songs were different, the songs' choruses "shared a 'basic shape and pitch emphasis' in their melodies, which were played over 'highly similar basslines' and chord changes, at very nearly the same tempo and in the same generic style." He noted both the songs had their choruses sung in the key of B♭. The expert further remarked that "the emphasis on musical notes" on the two songs was the same, which "contribute to the impression of similarity one hears when comparing the two songs." He presented a series of visual transcriptions of his observations. The transcriptions contained details about the pitch sequence of both the songs' chorus, melody, and bassline.

The district court labeled this evidence as insufficient to survive a motion for summary judgment. It noted the expert's methodology to be "flawed" and stated that through its own analysis, no instance of substantial similarity was found. The lawsuit was settled in favor of Carey by the US District Judge, who noted that there was no similarity in key, harmonic structure, tempo, or genre between the two songs.