A Lark Ascending Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 'Happy Birthday' ruled out of copyrightOutrageous!Now we'll never get that Bear Family box with all the alternates. Quote
sonnymax Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 Does this ruling also apply to the alternate lyrics?Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too. Quote
Kevin Bresnahan Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 How the hell can something written in 1893 be under copyright anyway? 122 years? Really? Quote
Daniel A Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 How the hell can something written in 1893 be under copyright anyway? 122 years? Really?In many EU countries, the copyright expires 70 years after the death of the composer. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_lengths Quote
Shawn Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 The particular copyright in question was filed in 1935 for a specific arrangement of the music, that was what Warners has been using to collect royalties. However the judge discovered that no copyright existed for the lyrics of the song and thus threw it out. Quote
medjuck Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 IIRC I was watching the film On Golden Pond and in a birthday celebration they sang For He's a Jolly Good Fellow and I thought "Holy shit, someone must own the copyright on Happy Birthday." Quote
danasgoodstuff Posted September 23, 2015 Report Posted September 23, 2015 (edited) https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2429288/marya-v-warner-chappell.pdf Full text, it was at Summary Judgement - it's almost certainly going to be appealed and could be in litigation for a long time to come. Edited September 23, 2015 by danasgoodstuff Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted September 24, 2015 Author Report Posted September 24, 2015 Desperate fight to secure the copyright on 'Happy Birthday'. Could there be a better illustration of greed? Quote
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