None of the companies that have collected royalties on the "Happy Birthday" song for the past 80 years held a valid copyright claim to one of the most popular songs in history, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Tuesday.
In a stunning reversal of decades of copyright claims, the judge ruled that Warner/Chappell never had the right to charge for the use of the "Happy Birthday To You" song. Warner had been enforcing a copyright since 1988, when it bought Birch Tree Group, the successor to Clayton F. Summy Co., which claimed the original disputed copyright.
Judge George H. King ruled that a copyright filed by the Summy Co. in 1935 granted only the rights to specific piano arrangements of the music, not the actual song.
A third of the royalties from the song go to the Hill family's Association for Childhood Education International, and that accounted to $754,108 last year... so this isn't chump change. Also current royalty payers may decide to pursue most-recent copyright holder Warner Music Group for back payments.
Apparently Warner settled a class action lawsuit by artists and filmmakers for $14 million rather pay all of the back royalties it received for lyrics it never actually owned. Back in February.
Is that really a ten-month gap in first and second posts?
I'd be fine if all versions of this song would just cease to exist. And McCartney as well.
Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question. They called it The Prayer, its answer was law Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Author
