Slashdot Mirror
"Happy Birthday To You" Now Public Domain
New submitter Duckman5 writes: As mentioned on multiple occasions, the popular song "Happy Birthday To You" has recently been the subject of a lawsuit between a couple of documentary filmmakers and Warner/Chappell Music. The judge in the case, George H. King, has finally issued his ruling and according to NPR and the LA Times, that song is finally in the public domain. Warner is still apparently "considering our options," so this may not be the end of it, but it seems to be a turn in the right direction. Also at the Washington Post, among many others.
Right. The court ruled that the copyright was never valid. Now the question is whether Warner will have to repay millions in royalties that they extorted with their false claims.
This wasn't "ruling in favour of the obvious", this was making a ruling about which parts of "Happy Birthday" are copyrighted, based on the technicalities of the claim.
Indeed, the song's author(s) apparently never asserted a copyright for the lyric, and the first company to do so did not seem to have gained that right from the authors. So the melody fell out of copyright long ago, and the lyric was never properly copyrighted in the first place. Now let's see if Warner has to return the monies they took for licensing a song that they didn't actually own.
Right. The court ruled that the copyright was never valid. Now the question is whether Warner will have to repay millions in royalties that they extorted with their false claims.
It depends.
If Warner filed a case against you and you settled out of court, probably not. You did, after all, settle.
If Warner filed a case and actually won in court, you might be able to appeal based on this "new evidence".
Minne-snow-da: Winter is comming...
http://xkcd.com/1581/
timeo Danaos, et dona ferentis
Settlement agreements usually forbid appeals even if the facts change, and at any rate the statute of limitations for recovery of improperly paid fees is probably expired anyway.