Being a lawyer is like being a hacker. Some hackers create problems and other hackers (aka security consultants) sell the solutions. When it comes to lawyers;

Being a lawyer is like being a hacker. Some hackers create problems and other hackers (aka security consultants) sell the solutions. When it comes to lawyers; some laywers create problems by launching legal action and then other lawyers sell the solution by offering defence. One set of lawyers gets hired by a company to sue another company which, in response, is forced to hire a different, equally large and equally expensive set of lawyers to defend itself. Then you have a judge who sits in the middle and who has a tendency to be sympathetic towards the lawyers (judges are often former lawyers themselves). It's not surprising that lawyers get such massive payouts. I think this case should have been thrown out of court because it is idiotic. The judge just saw an opportunity to allow his lawyer friends make some money - Maybe they will return the favor some day. The worst part is that the judge and the lawyers probably feel all warm and fuzzy about what they did... The lawyers probably think of themselves as being "The heroes who moved the happy birthday song into the public domain" - Whereas in reality, they are "Hackers who manipulated the legal system to make money for themselves". Regardless of the outcome of this case, people would still have continued to sing happy birthday - Everybody in the world knows this. The plaintiff didn't have much of a case.