 On October 3 , 2007 , Bourne Co . Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing the show of infringing its copyright on the song " When You Wish Upon a Star " , through a parody song entitled " I Need a Jew " appearing in the episode " When You Wish Upon a Weinstein " . Bourne Co . , the sole United States copyright owner of the song , alleged the parody pairs a " thinly veiled " copy of its music with antisemitic lyrics . Named in the suit were 20th Century Fox Film Corp. , Fox Broadcasting Co . , Cartoon Network , MacFarlane and Murphy ; the suit sought to stop the program 's distribution and asked for unspecified damages . Bourne argued that " I Need a Jew " uses the copyrighted melody of " When You Wish Upon a Star " without commenting on that song , and that it was therefore not a First Amendment @-@ protected parody per the ruling in Campbell v. Acuff @-@ Rose Music , Inc . On March 16 , 2009 , United States District Judge Deborah Batts held that Family Guy did not infringe on Bourne 's copyright when it transformed the song for comical use in an episode . 
