Happy Birthday, Congratulations to the music to you, is all and the rights do not exist – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

It’s probably the most popular song in English ever, the most sung. Be in everyday life – make someone years – whether in fiction. But I knew that Happy Birthday to You , the original Happy Birthday , had so far copyright? Rights, those which yield annually about 1.5 million to Warner Chappell Music? Two years ago a director objected to this payment and took the case to court, now it decided that the song is in the public domain and there are no rights to be charged.

                     

                          After years of controversy, the Federal Court of Los Angeles revealed his sentence:. Warner Chappell Music publishing does not have valid documentation justifying the possession of music copyright which all know by heart

According to Judge George H King, the rights originally recorded by Clayton F Summy Co in 1935 only apply to a specific arrangement of the song and not the melody. The Clayton F Summy Co never acquired the rights to the lyrics of the song, defended the judge to whom the defense of the accused was “far-fetched and unreasonable.”

The process now comes to an end was admitted to no court two years as director Jennifer Nelson denied that Warner Chappell Music halt the Copyright Happy Birthday to You , claiming that music should be for everyone. Nelson, whose production company is owned by Warner Chappell Music, had to pay about 1,200 euros to the publisher to use Happy Birthday in its namesake documentary, which traces the history of the music itself.

“It’s a song created by the public, belongs to the public and must be returned to him”, then he defended the lawyer of Nelson, Mark C. Rifkin. This is not the first time that the copyright Happy Birthday are under discussion – the story of the song is unclear, there are several doubts about the legality of Warner Chappell Music charge for each time the theme is used in films or, under US law, when it is sung to you in a restaurant by its employees.

The origin of the song dates back to 1893, when the sisters Mildred and Patty Smith Hill, educators childhood Kentucky, wrote the agenda Good Morning to all . The melody was, having been signed several copyright between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, under the purview of the publisher Birch Tree Hill. The current letter, of unknown origin, began to emerge in the early twentieth century in the music books always with the melody Good Morning to all . In 1935, is the Clayton F Summy Co that records the rights, then bought by Warner in the 1980s.

In an interview in 1989 to New York Times , Jay Morgenstern, then vice -president executive of Warner Chappell Music, counted as the purchase of rights was a good deal for the publisher. Morgenstern guarantee that had been “a great investment”.

But for the court’s decision on Tuesday and the publisher would continue to amass whenever you sing the congratulations until at least 2030 in the US and up 2017 in Europe, according to the law.

“ Happy Birthday is finally free after 80 years,” he responded, cited by The Guardian Randall Newman, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. “Finally, the charade is over. Unbelievable. “