Did you know that singing the classic ‘Happy birthday to you’ ditty was technically stealing?
Yes, that’s right. Every time your nearest and dearest celebrated the fact that you were still alive in song form, they owed royalties to Warner Music Group.
The music company bought the rights to the composition for a whopping $15 million from Birch Tree Group, who bought it from the original copyright owners Summy Co.
That’s why you rarely see the song sung in movies or on TV shows – because Warner charge an arm and a leg for the privilege.
But all that is about to change, because a federal judge in the US has ruled that Warner don’t in fact own the copyright for the ditty – only a very specific arrangement.
As the LA Times reports:
Judge George H. King ruled Tuesday afternoon that a copyright filed by the [Clayton F.] Summy Co. in 1935 granted only the rights to specific arrangements of the music, not the actual song itself.
“Because Summy Co. never acquired the rights to the Happy Birthday lyrics,” wrote Judge George H. King, “Defendants, as Summy Co.’s purported successors-in-interest, do not own a valid copyright in the Happy Birthday lyrics.”
So your nan can now sing it to her heart’s delight, safe in the knowledge she’s not a hardened criminal for doing so.
