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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2018 : Issue 3
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Re: "Happy Birthday To You" [ A Joseph Ross <joe@[removed] ]
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Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2018 11:33:18 -0500
From: A Joseph Ross <joe@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: "Happy Birthday To You"
12/31
1940 - As a result of a dispute between the radio networks and ASCAP
(the American Society of Composers and Publishers), the radio industry
was prevented from playing any ASCAP-licensed music. ... One of the most
popular songs to be played was "Happy Birthday to You"; ... The
original song is now, in fact, a copyrighted piece of music, though it
wasn't at the time.
Works which are in the public domain don't normally go back under
copyright. What often happens, though, is that people don't enforce a
copyright and sometimes don't even realize that they can. Then they
wake up and enforce their rights and what was =thought= to be in the
public domain turns out to be under copyright. This is what happened
not too long ago to the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." IIRC, someone
realized they owned the rights to the music in the film, even though the
rest of the film had gone out of copyright. So by enforcing that right,
they control the entire film.
As for "Happy Birthday," the copyright claim was first registered in
1935. A federal court in 2015 ruled that the claim of copyright applied
only to a particular piano arrangement of the song, and not the tune or
lyrics themselves. The song finally and indisputably went into the
public domain in the United States on 28 June 2016, when settlement of
the lawsuit was finally approved. See
[removed] .
--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 Newton, MA 02459
[removed] [removed] [removed]
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End of [removed] Digest V2018 Issue #3
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