Class action law suit against Warner for Happy Birthday Song

[fris]

Emma Woollacott at Forbes reports that filmmaker Jennifer Nelson has filed a lawsuit against Warner/Chappell, the publishing arm of Warner Music Group, seeking a declaration that the popular song ?Happy Birthday to You? is in the public domain and an order that Warner return all license fees paid to it over the past four years, including the $1,500 she paid to use it in a documentary.

The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, argues that the song has its roots in the late 1800s, where the melody started as the song ?Good Morning to All?, which was written by two sisters, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill. The song then morphed time into the better-known version. Warner, through a purchase in 1988, acquired the rights to a set of lyrics to the song printed in 1924 and a piano arrangement published in 1935.

Nelson, however, claims that she can prove the song and the lyrics were around well before that and have long since fallen out of copyright. Warner currently earns an estimated $2 million per year in license fees from the song meaning, if successful, it could have to return approximately $8 million on licensed paid to it.

thought this was funny

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/...appy-birthday/

[Zeiss]

BMI is tha shit! I'm a member..

[blackmonsters]

Why can't I put the song in my movie and just remove it when I get a DMCA?

Weird how that works.