According to unhappybirthday.com...
"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.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."
Darn Time Warner has its hands in every candy jar!
In class, GL-B talked about how a woman posted a video of herself, playing the guitar and singing the familiar tune, on YouTube. But because it is an advertised space, they were required to remove the video...because the song is licensed and the woman did not pay any kind of royalty or copyright fee...hahahaha kind of funny to really think about the ways our crazy system works!
What do you think about this?!
kAYLe!
well im not to suprised they keep extending the time. Thats exactly what has happend with Mickey mouse. They should of lost the copyright to him a while ago, but manage to extend the time everytime it comes due, and i wouldn't be suprised if this continues for the rest of human life. People are quite determind to keep making them big stacks of moola
ReplyDeleteToo true! people love their money. the only reason i find it so annoying that the song is copyrighted is that's the exact reason that every restaurant sings their own crappy birthday thing. obviously they want their money too and aren't going to be paying any usage rights.
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