The director filed a lawsuit for the right to use the song "Happy Birthday" without licensing fees

Television and film industry has long been under pressure from Warner / Chappel Music - Warner's daughters - in the need to deduct money for the rights to use the song "Happy Birthday", probably the most popular song in the world. As an example, the creators of the critically acclaimed documentary film “Hoop Dreams” (“Basketball Dreams”, 1994) had to pay $ 5,000 per stage, when the family of one of the main characters just sang a song. In 1996, Warner / Chappel earned more than $ 2 million in license sales.

Recently, a new documentary about the history of this song was released, and, of course, the filmmakers had to pay deductions that amounted to $ 1,500.
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But everything comes to an end. Yesterday, Good Morning To You, the company that filmed the documentary, filed a lawsuit in federal court, providing evidence that the license for Happy Birthday does not have the right to life. The words of the song are very similar to the song "Good Morning to All", which was published in the songbook for kindergartens in 1893. The lawsuit contains a large number of similar examples of using this text in various sources that appeared before 1935, when rights to a song were registered.

Previously, evidence was also provided that the license was fictitious. For example, in 2010, as a result of extensive research conducted at the George Washington University, it was concluded that "it is almost certain that the copyright for the song should be canceled, since there is no evidence of who specifically wrote these words." In the Eldred vs. Ascroft trial, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breuer cited this song as an example when he criticized the endless renewal of copyright licenses, noting that the song was based on a melody that was documented in 1893.

The plaintiff hopes that everyone from whom illegal contributions were taken from June 13, 2009 to the present, will receive a check from Time Warner.

“Before I started my directing career, I never thought that anyone could own this song,” says Jennifer Nelson in an interview with the New York Times. “I thought she belonged to everyone.” Jennifer is captured in a photo of an article in the New York Times, holding a collection of songs from 1924, which also includes the song "Happy Birthday."

Proponents of copyright reform were outraged by the licensing of “Happy Birthday”, but now comes the decisive moment, which must dot the i's. A full lawsuit is available on Techdirt .

via arstechnica.com