Judgment that the copyright of "Happy Birthday to you" song is not attributed to Warner comes down

A song that repeats the phrase "Happy Birthday to You"Happy Birthday to You"Warner · Chapel · Music (Warner), a music publishing company, requested the movie production company to use the song for the reason of copyright infringement, and the production company says," Warner is a song "The warrant has not held the copyright of the song, as stated by the plaintiffs," in a lawsuit brought up as "the copyright of the song is not held".

031122040618 - 00065570.pdf
(PDF file)http://www.shadesofgraylaw.com/media/00065570.pdf

Birthday Song's Copyright Leads to a Lawsuit for the Ages - The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/nyregion/lawsuit-aims-to-strip-happy-birthday-to-you-of-its-copyright.html

Happy Birthday to You is a song called 'Good Morning to All' written by Mildred Hill, Pat Hill's sisters and songs in the 19th century is the original song. Happy Birthday to You, which became more popular than the original song, has been copyrighted in the US in 1935 under the name of share by Kraton Sammy et al. Since the original music Good Morning to All was not registered, in the United StatesPublic domainAs free, use is permitted.


Later copyright of Happy Birthday to You was transferred from Sister Hill to Sammy, but in the United States the validity period of corporate copyright was extended to 95 years after publication by the Copyright Extension Law enacted in 1998, Happy Birthday to You 's copyright has been effective from 1935 until 2030 after 95 years.

By the way, in the United States, when the copyright of Mickey Mouse is about to become ineffective, Disney's powerful lobbying will extend the term of validity of the copyright law, a series of copyrights that has been repeated many times in the past Extended measures are being ridiculed as "Mickey Mouse Protection Act".

What kinds of copyright laws have been changed so far to protect the copyright of "Mickey Mouse"? - GIGAZINE


After that, after Warner bought Sammy in 1998, the copyright of Happy Birthday to You will be attributed to Warner after that. Moreover, Warner strictly manages the use permission of Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You registered as Guinness Book as "the world's most famous song" is "as the world's best money singing" Also known.

Warner is getting hundreds of millions of yen annually as a use fee for Happy Birthday to You, and it is said that this high usage fee is the reason why Happy Birthday to You is not sung in movies and TV dramas.

Reason why "Happy Birthday to You" is not sung so much in American movies and TV dramas - GIGAZINE


Because of strict Warner's policy, there are many movie production companies that refrain from using Happy Birthday to You, while Good Morning To You Production (GMTY), a video production company in New York, USA in 2013, "Happy Birthday to You "We produced a documentary movie titled" As a result of using Happy Birthday to You in the movie, Warner was charged $ 1,500 as a penalty for unauthorized use (about 180,000 yen).

Meanwhile, Jennifer Nelson who runs GMTY sued Warner against dissatisfaction with Warner's penalty claim. In the lawsuit plaintiff GMTY said, "The copyright of Happy Birthday to You, which Sammy gave us is limited to arranging with the piano instead of the song itself, so the reason why Warner bought Sammy to succeed was that of the piano It is limited to the arrangement part ".

Mr. Nelson is asking the effect of Happy Birthday to You 's copyright that Warner owns the book "Harvest Hymns" issued in 1924 which includes the lyrics of Happy Birthday to You.


The District Court of California accepted itself on September 22, 2015 that Sammy legitimately got the right to Happy Birthday to You, but "I was handed over to Happy Birthday to You using the piano "Happy Birthday to You denies the succession of the copyright on the lyrics. As a result, "We did not own the copyright about the lyrics of Happy Birthday to You," Warner who bought Sammy, "and acknowledged the plaintiff's claim.

If the judgment of this time that Warner has not owned the copyright of Happy Birthday to You's lyrics is confirmed, many movie officials who have avoided using Happy Birthday to You in fear of the conflict with Warner will be working It seems that it will be taking a scene where Happy Birthday to You is dignifiedly sung inside.