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The article isn't clear on the current copyright status for the song. It was first published in 1918. Copyright for songs published prior to 1978 runs out after

The article isn't clear on the current copyright status for the song. It was first published in 1918. Copyright for songs published prior to 1978 runs out after 95 years. Therefore it should fall into the public domain this year, regardless of any lawsuit.

300bps 13y ago
The lawsuit is seeking to divest Warner of the hundreds of millions of dollars they've been paid for something they didn't have the rights to. There are all kinds of entities that have a claim to own a copyright. Some of them are true, some if them are false. If you aggressively enforce a copyright that ultimately turns out to not be yours to enforce, there should be stiff penalties over and above the fees you collected. When the reconstituted SCO was suing everyone over Linux licenses over bogus copyright claims, they were unfortunately let off pretty easily.
ubernostrum 13y ago
The article is blogspam. You want this one: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmmaker-finally-aims-to-get-court-to-admit-that-happy-birthday-is-public-domain.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmma... Which also has the full text of the filing. Basically they argue that the melody dates to at least 1893, first copyrighted in 1896, and that this copyright expired in 1921. The lyrics were first mentioned in a 1901 newspaper article. No attempt to copyright them is known until 1912, through a songbook in which they would not have been eligible for copyright as a new song. Although a series of copyrights were also filed in the 1930s, they were all for specific new arrangements of the melody, never for the melody itself or for the lyrics, since the melody and lyrics already existed, and the melody had already been copyrighted once and expired. If their historical research is correct, then neither the melody nor the lyrics could possibly be under copyright in the present day, and most likely could not have been under copyright even when some of the earliest lawsuits for infringement were filed; the latest the melody could have been under copyright was 1921, and the latest the lyrics could have been under copyright (from the original filing of the 1912 songbook) was 1930.

300bps 13y ago

The lawsuit is seeking to divest Warner of the hundreds of millions of dollars they've been paid for something they didn't have the rights to. There are all kinds of entities that have a claim to own a copyright. Some of them are true, some if them are false. If you aggressively enforce a copyright that ultimately turns out to not be yours to enforce, there should be stiff penalties over and above the fees you collected. When the reconstituted SCO was suing everyone over Linux licenses over bogus copyright claims, they were unfortunately let off pretty easily.

ubernostrum 13y ago

The article is blogspam. You want this one: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmmaker-finally-aims-to-get-court-to-admit-that-happy-birthday-is-public-domain.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmma... Which also has the full text of the filing. Basically they argue that the melody dates to at least 1893, first copyrighted in 1896, and that this copyright expired in 1921. The lyrics were first mentioned in a 1901 newspaper article. No attempt to copyright them is known until 1912, through a songbook in which they would not have been eligible for copyright as a new song. Although a series of copyrights were also filed in the 1930s, they were all for specific new arrangements of the melody, never for the melody itself or for the lyrics, since the melody and lyrics already existed, and the melody had already been copyrighted once and expired. If their historical research is correct, then neither the melody nor the lyrics could possibly be under copyright in the present day, and most likely could not have been under copyright even when some of the earliest lawsuits for infringement were filed; the latest the melody could have been under copyright was 1921, and the latest the lyrics could have been under copyright (from the original filing of the 1912 songbook) was 1930.