A historic copyright ruling just made 'Happy Birthday' free to sing
A judge ruled Tuesday that all copyright claims to the song “Happy Birthday” were invalid, and that anyone can now use it for commercial purposes.
“It now belongs to the public,” Mark Rifkin, a lawyer representing a documentary filmmaker who filed the suit against Sony, told me by phone.
I recently reported how, for almost eight decades, the most-sung song in the world had been deemed not in the public domain, as various publishers claimed copyright over the song’s words and lyrics. That meant you actually had to pay to use it for commercial purposes. Many restaurants and entertainment venues were thus forced to come up with alternative versions to get around this. (Someone also created a compilation video of all the times movies and TV shows avoided using the song).
Nevertheless, the song was said to have been generating $2 million annually for its purported rights holder, Warner-Chappell, which is owned by Sony.