Steely Dan Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Did you know Happy Birthday is copyrighted and the copyright is currently owned and actively enforced by Time Warner?[/u] Did you know that if you sing any copyrighted song: ...at a place open to the public ...or among a substantial number of people who are not family or friends You are involved in a public performance of that work? Did you know an unauthorized public performance is a form of copyright infringement? Is Happy Birthday Really Copyrighted? Yes. The melody for Happy Birthday was first penned by two sisters from Kentucky, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill. The song was called Good Morning to All, but bore the recognizable melody. The tune was first published in 1893 in the book Song Stories for the Kindergarten. The melody has since passed into the public domain, and is safe to hum in public without permission. While it is not entirely clear who first wrote down the words for Happy Birthday, it showed up in a few places before Jessica Hill (another Hill sister) was able to demonstrate undeniable similarities between Good Morning to All and Happy Birthday and to secure the copyright to the song. Working with the Clayton F. Summy Publishing Company, Jessica Hill published and copyrighted Happy Birthday in 1935. While the copyright should have expired in 1991, copyright has been extended repeatedly over the last quarter of the twentieth century and the copyright for Happy Birthday is now not due to expire until at least 2030. The Clayton F. Summy Company is no longer independent, but, through a chain of purchases, the copyright for Happy Birthday To You lies securely in the hands of the Time Warner company. Happy Birthday's copyright is licensed and enforced by ASCAP, and the simple little ditty brings in more than USD $2 million in annual royalties. For more information on the history of the tune, lyrics, and copyright status, check out these resources: * Snopes' article on the legal status of Happy Birthday Don't forget to pay or TW lawyers may hunt you down and litigate you to death. If you've ever wondered why a lot of restaurants use different birthday type songs, this is why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 You didn't know that? That's why, in restaurants where they embarrass people by having the whole staff sing on their birthdays, they don't actually sing "Happy Birthday". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live&DieBillsFootball Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 To be safe, do what I do: Sing it off-key, out of tune and forget some of the words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steely Dan Posted March 13, 2009 Author Share Posted March 13, 2009 You didn't know that? That's why, in restaurants where they embarrass people by having the whole staff sing on their birthdays, they don't actually sing "Happy Birthday". Unless the restaurant already pays an ASCAP fee already they could be charged for singing the song. Large restaurants would take the other way around it. JMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopsGuy Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 This was mentioned in an episode of "Sports Night". Here's featuring Yeardley Smith. the voice of Lisa Simpson. Later in the episode, Dan tells Casey that Patty and Mildred Hill wrote the song and his response was "It took two people to write that?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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