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"Happy Birthday To You" Set To Finally Reach the Public Domain

Posted by timothy on from the long-in-the-tooth dept.

schnell writes: The New York Times reports that "the world's most popular song" is at last poised to be released into the public domain. From the story: "In September, a federal judge ruled that Warner Music, the song's publisher, did not have a valid copyright claim to 'Happy Birthday,' which has been estimated to collect $2 million a year in royalties. But what that ruling meant for the future of the song — and Warner's liability — was unclear, and a trial had been set to begin next week. In a filing on Tuesday in United States District Court in Los Angeles, the parties in the case said they had agreed to a settlement to end the case. The terms of that deal are confidential. But if the settlement is approved by the court, the song is expected to formally enter the public domain." (We mentioned the case in September, too.)

2 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Read: "Warner avoids massive class-action lawsuit" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They made hundreds of millions of dollars off of a single fraudulent copyright claim and will experience no repercussions. These are the people RIAA is fighting for.

  2. Chemo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That Happy Birthday of all things could have stayed so long locked under copyright is the prime example of why Copyright is such a horrible cancer for society.

    This is not about anything but making more profit for big labels.