Filmmakers working on documentary about "Happy Birthday" song find evidence that the song's copyrigh

[Ele]

[QUOTE]The "smoking gun" is a 1927 version of the "Happy Birthday" lyrics, predating Warner/Chappell's 1935 copyright by eight years. That 1927 songbook, along with other versions located through the plaintiffs' investigations, "conclusively prove that any copyright that may have existed for the song itself... expired decades ago."
...
The 1927 songbook referenced above was found in a batch of 500 documents provided by Warner/Chappell earlier this month. That cache included "approximately 200 pages of documents [Warner/Chappell] claim were 'mistakenly' not produced during discovery, which ended on July 11, 2014, more than one year earlier," Nelson's lawyers write.
...
Plaintiffs acquired their own copies of the songbook, including a first edition published in 1916, which didn't have the song, and versions published 1922 and later, which include it without a copyright notice.

That's critical, because under the 1909 Copyright Act which was then in force, a published work had to include the word “Copyright,” the abbreviation "Copr., " or the "©" symbol, or "the published work was interjected irrevocably into the public domain."

The plaintiffs argue that the 1922 publication without proper notice forfeited copyright in the work. Even if the judge overseeing the case doesn't agree with them, however, there's a secondary argument: the copyright for the whole 1922 songbook expired in 1949.

There's even a third line of defense: even if the work had been published in 1922 with proper notice, and even if that copyright had been renewed in 1949 (which the plaintiffs say it wasn't), the song still would have become public domain at midnight on December 31, 1997.[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/07/filmmakers-fighting-happy-birthday-copyright-find-their-smoking-gun/"]source[/URL]
imagine being able to hear the actual happy birthday song on tv instead of some similar-but-legally-distinct knockoff
what a time to be alive :toot:

[Aide]

[quote][b]the song still would have become public domain at midnight on December 31, 1997.[/b][/quote]

[Drewsko]

I didn't even known it was copyrighted, geeze.

[Zero-Point]

[QUOTE=Drewsko;48319086]I didn't even known it was copyrighted, geeze.[/QUOTE]

It's the reason you get that dumb-ass "HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY" hand-clapping and bouncing spiel when a restaurant finds out its your birthday.

[CMX]

Is there an original recording of the happy birthday song?

[BigJoeyLemons]

For he's a jolly good fellow...

[Drewsko]

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48319173]It's the reason you get that dumb-ass "HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY" hand-clapping and bouncing spiel when a restaurant finds out its your birthday.[/QUOTE]

I never noticed that. The only case I can really remember was Spaghetti Warehouse having their staff walk out of the kitchen with a cake while clapping a simple *CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP* pattern all the way to the victim's table.

[Big Dumb Patriot]

[QUOTE=Drewsko;48319774]I never noticed that. The only case I can really remember was Spaghetti Warehouse having their staff walk out of the kitchen with a cake while clapping a simple *CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP* pattern all the way to the victim's table.[/QUOTE]

This is also how most ritualistic sacrifices are initiated: a cake, a swaying conga-march, rhythmic clapping, and out come the jeweled daggers.

[wickedplayer494]

Well hot damn. Air out the evidence in public and order will finally be restored.

[Pako]

[URL="http://www.clickhole.com/article/royalty-free-birthday-songs-anyone-can-use-2173"]No longer we will have to resort to these.[/URL]

[Tuskin]

I always liked the Futurama version

[url]http://theinfosphere.org/Birthday[/url]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATyHIT5LV8g[/media]

[kylel999]

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48319173]It's the reason you get that dumb-ass "HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY" hand-clapping and bouncing spiel when a restaurant finds out its your birthday.[/QUOTE]

We always just sang happy birthday normally