Happy Birthday to all, except for some lawyers
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HAPPY Birthday has been freed from its copyright shackles: Rejoice! But don't rejoice too much. The federal district court in California that invalidated Warner/Chappell Music's claim to own the lyrics didn't rely on the logic you might imagine, namely that the words are as much a part of the public domain as, well, the phrase "Happy Birthday".
The court's narrow decision, released last week, resulted from an incredibly detailed, legally arcane analysis of whether the alleged owner before Warner actually acquired rights to the lyrics alongside the rights to the music, which have since lapsed. The court seems to have reached the right result, but it hasn't struck a blow for the freedom of song.
The story behind Happy Birthday is interesting. Two sisters, Mildred and Patty Hill, composed the music for the song we know as Happy Birthday some time before 1893. They also wrote words:
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