We Need A Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute-- Not In March

Today's Song: Happy Birthday To You by  Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill

This is one of the songs i intended to do all month.  The legal status of this song is a very interesting question.  The Time-Warner Corporation claims to own the copyright and makes two million a year off of this claim.  Justice Breyer called into question the copyright status of this song in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003.  Generally i don't put any stock in the dissenting opinions of Justice Breyer, but to be fair i don't put any stock in his majority opinions either.

Robert Brauneis at George Washington University Law School has written a research paper on the topic.  The abstract is reproduced below:


Abstract:     
"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. The song that became "Happy Birthday to You," originally written with different lyrics as "Good Morning to All," was the product of intense creative labor, undertaken with copyright protection in mind. However, it is almost certainly no longer under copyright, due to a lack of evidence about who wrote the words; defective copyright notice; and a failure to file a proper renewal application.

The falsity of the standard story about the song demonstrates the dangers of relying on anecdotes without thorough research and analysis. It also reveals collective action barriers to mounting challenges to copyright validity: the song generates an estimated $2 million per year, and yet no one has ever sought adjudication of the validity of its copyright. Finally, the true story of the song demonstrates that a long, unitary copyright term requires changes in copyright doctrine and administration. With such a term, copyright law needs a doctrine like adverse possession to clear title and protect expectations generated when, as with this song, putative owners do not challenge distribution of unauthorized copies for more than 20 years. And Copyright Office recordkeeping policy, which currently calls for discarding correspondence after 20 years and most registration denials and deposits after five years, must be improved to facilitate resolution of disputes involving older works. 


I found this subject interesting when i discovered it earlier this fall and thought you, my readers, might as well.  This one isn't as much fun as most of the postings this month and there is little original work of my own here, but i claim fair use of the abstract.  I also thought it would be fun to write "Happy Birthday dear Jesus" on Facebook.  I almost went with Jebus but i figured the Facebook crowd might not get the joke and i do need them to vote for me in about six years.


Happy Birthday Jesus even though you were born in March.  Apparently as your infallible representative on Earth the Pope gets to move your birthday.  To be fair, pagans suck and Saturnalia was lame anyway. Slaves ought not switch roles with masters, even in jest.  Peons, peasants, surfs and the proletariat need to know their place. 


Merry Christmas everyone.


Later

Bob