We do not keep in mind the Snoopy storyline the place Charlie Brown and co. find yourself in a authorized copyright battle, however that is precisely what’s taking place in the mean time. Lee Mendelson Movie Productions (the proprietor of “sure mental property” associated to the Peanuts IP) has issued a authorized criticism in opposition to writer GameMill, accusing the latter of copyright infringement in Snoopy & the Nice Thriller Membership‘s rating.
Okay, that is loads to digest, and there is each probability you’ve got by no means heard of Snoopy & the Nice Thriller Membership, so let’s break it down. GameMill printed the puzzle journey recreation on the Change eShop final yr to comparatively little fanfare. Seven months after launch, it appears the Peanuts proprietor has observed some acquainted tunes within the recreation’s rating, and what have you learnt, these tunes weren’t licensed.
In the criticism (delivered to our consideration on X by @tech_gaming), Lee Mendelson Movie Productions supplies a breakdown of a number of songs within the ‘Nice Thriller Membership’ soundtrack, pointing to similarities between them and the unique Vince Guaraldi rating. This, it claims, is proof that GameMill “created music considerably much like (and thus infringing upon) the Guaraldi Compositions with out authorization.”
The studio has even pulled in musicologist Dr. Ethan Lustig to “present an preliminary evaluation of the musicological similarities between the Guaraldi Compositions and the music within the GameMill Recreation,” that are listed all through the doc.
The comparisons pair Guaraldi’s ‘Linus and Lucy‘ and ‘Skating‘ (with which any A Charlie Brown Christmas followers can be instantly acquainted) with a complete host of the sport’s tracks, together with ‘Success‘, ‘City Theme‘ and ‘Schoolhouse Theme‘. Lustig factors to varied “musicological similarities” between the unique rating and the 2025 soundtrack, noting the “particular rhythmic (and metric) instantiation”, “an identical be aware occasions (identical pitch and rhythm)”, and different comparisons that are introduced as proof of copyright infringement.
And for these questioning, sure, the criticism states that GameMill did license the rights to the Peanuts characters for the sport, although it “didn’t license the rights to the Guaraldi Compositions from Plaintiff”.
Lee Mendelson Movie Productions is requesting damages “to be decided at trial” for the copyright infringements, which, the criticism states, are presently estimated to exceed $300,000.
This demand for jury trial was submitted final week on twentieth Might 2026 alongside lawsuits directed on the Federal Authorities, Heritage Auctions and belt buckle model Buckle-Down for comparable musical copyright infringement. We have now reached out to GameMill for a touch upon the criticism and can be conserving an eye fixed out for developments within the coming months.
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