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[Jesus4me]

It depends on what the songs are that would make them subject to copyright. A lot of classic Christmas carols and songs aren't really under copyright, and so wouldn't be affected.

But SDC, off the top of my head, used over the last several years:
1. You Got a Friend in Me
2. POTC theme music
3. Somewhere in My Memory from Home Alone (Christmas Carol)
4. Money Makes the World Go Round (It's a Wonderful Life)

Almost every song in Dickens, with only a couple of exceptions like Ave Maria, are under copyright from other parties and they have to pay licensing fees to use those songs.  Some in Dickens were from the Polar Express, some from the musical movie Scrooge, and a few others.

I've heard 2 different things- either they hadn't been paying the licensing fees for those songs in the past and were hit with a cease and desist order, or the holders of the copyrights raised the amounts they were wanting for SDC to use the songs by a large amount.

Either way, SDC decided what they would have been charged to use those songs wasn't worth the cost, and that's why they are no longer used in the show.  Using them would result in a costly lawsuit.

That's not true for many Christmas carols, which are in public domain. But those songs most definitely are not.

If this is true, then they should just have a new show. Changing the music in a "Musical" is like basically killing the show. It's like when Coke changed the formula to Coke but still called it Coke. What about "It's a wonderful Life'? What is the excuse for that show? If it was just about copyrights, why aren't the same actors in the new show. Why did they change "It's a Wonderful Life'? You can buy a large plot of land, but you cannot purchase rights. Other theme parks and shows play copyright music and they have no problem.