Documentarians working on a film on the history of "Happy Birthday to You" have challenged Warner/Chappel's copyright claims in a lawsuit, alleging that the publishing giant has been fleecing the rest of society for licensing for decades. To quote Cory Doctorow, "This is gonna be great."
[UPDATE:] After some legal maneuverings last Fall the case has survived preliminary challenges [PDF] and is currently in discovery phase until September.
Good luck, Plaintiffs.
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Jolly Good Fellowes Accuse Warners of Happy Birthday Copyfraud
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Monday July 28 2014, @07:45AM
I'd say Warner looks like a monkey and smells like one too.
(Score: 2, Informative) by jbWolf on Monday July 28 2014, @09:28AM
Hey, you know, this would go great with a tune I once heard...
www.jb-wolf.com [jb-wolf.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 28 2014, @05:30PM
Hey, you know, this would go great with a tune I once heard...
Go ahead and sing it brother! The tune is public domain. It's the words that are owned.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jasassin on Monday July 28 2014, @08:00AM
How awkward is it when people sing you that song. They deserve to be sued. :)
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Monday July 28 2014, @03:16PM
I always sing
What day is today
It's XXXXX's birthday
What a day for a birthday
Lets all have some cake
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @10:21AM
Ahem...
>Cory Doctorow at 8:51 pm Thu, Jun 13, 2013
Am I missing something here?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by BsAtHome on Monday July 28 2014, @12:32PM
No, you are not missing anything, it is "old news". But then again, maybe someone with access to the court documents could enlighten us to the status of the case? Anyone?
It is a very interesting case, to say the least. But, as with many court cases, the result will probably be less than satisfying. You'd hope that they would have to pay $150k per infraction over the years for the sake of symmetry, but they'll probably will be let off easy. Justice and vengeance are often far apart.
(Score: 2) by LaminatorX on Monday July 28 2014, @12:53PM
More like I was missing something. Perhaps an update is in order. :)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Buck Feta on Monday July 28 2014, @01:05PM
If only there were a song we could sing to this article in honor of its first complete trip around the sun.
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 4, Informative) by LaminatorX on Monday July 28 2014, @01:17PM
The story has been updated with current information. Thanks for the catch.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Monday July 28 2014, @06:28PM
What would be great is an ability it SN to flag this up with "follow-up: November 2014", then it would re-appear in a list
As it stands I'll certainly have forgotten it by then.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday July 28 2014, @02:10PM
You have to love this defense: "Plaintiffs allege that these lyrics were published on various occasions prior to the December 1935 registration. Even if true, this would not show that the author of the lyrics copyrighted under certificate E51990 copied those lyrics from somewhere else. Copyright law requires originality, not novelty"
The lyrics were apparently in common use, and published in various songbooks, for 30 years before the copyright registration. So the author of that particular, copyrighted arrangement "just happened" to write down the exact same lyrics, entirely by coincidence.
Shall we start a betting pool? What are the odds of the judge buying that and issuing summary judgement in favor of Warner?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by broken on Monday July 28 2014, @10:14PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by oldmac31310 on Monday July 28 2014, @03:44PM
Cory Doctorow, supposed novelist and other things writes 'this is gonna be great'. No need to read anything else by him or take him seriously. He probably should have ended by saying, 'it's clobberin' time, 'nuff said.
Idiot
Happy Birthday song? Who gives a damn? It is bad and annoying. Time for some originality.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tathra on Monday July 28 2014, @05:41PM
it doesnt matter, this is a perfect example of corporations stealing from the public domain and strangling our culture. in this case, they actually did steal it from the public domain since it existed in the public domain for 30 years before the copyright.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 29 2014, @03:31AM
This year, we did not sing "Happy Birthday" to one of our family members, since we were in fear of violating copyright, or IDF artillery, or a SAM aimed at our airliner. If people want to own culture, they get their own culture, or in other words, it ceases to be culture.