Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song

Tue, 05/06/2008 - 05:47 — Blake

Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song: 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.

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Comments

Tue, 05/06/2008 - 14:56 — Anonymous Canadian (not verified)

"a failure to file a proper

"a failure to file a proper renewal application."
It was my impression, in US law anyhow, that one simply held copyright without having to renew it.

Tue, 05/06/2008 - 14:56 — Anonymous Canadian (not verified)

"a failure to file a proper

"a failure to file a proper renewal application."
It was my impression, in US law anyhow, that one simply held copyright without having to renew it.

Tue, 05/06/2008 - 15:13 — Anonymous (not verified)

Pre-1976

Before 1976 you had to renew your copyright.

There is a site that searched the renewals and they have this blurb:
Any book published during the years 1923-1963 which is found in this file is still under copyright, as are all books published after 1964 (although until 1989 they still had to have proper notice and registration). Books published before 1923, or before Jan. 1, 1964 and not renewed, are out of copyright. This file does not contain listings for music, movies, or periodicals.