If you ever have been in a restaurant and the waitstaff sings some convoluted birthday song with a with a hot happen lot of clapping – there is a very important reason why. The same thing happens on the radio stations – if they have a today’s birthdays segment or a caller starts to sing “happy birthday to you”, they have to be immediately taken off the air and the audio dumped.
The tune of Happy Birthday to You was written in 1893 and is in the public domain – but the lyrics are not. The claim on the four lines of lyrics go back to the 1930s, still protected by the Disney perpetual copyright extension acts passed by Congress. The song is not part of the ASCAP Catalog, so the holders of the copyright can demand pretty much any amount of money they want, including a percentage of the sales from the restaurants.
A judge ruled today that enough is enough and placed the song into the public domain, based on an invalid copyright
http://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/music-company-does-not-own-happy-birthday-song-copyright-judge-n432001
Assuming this is not overturned, that means you can now put videos on YouTube of your child singing happy birthday – just don’t have a Mickey Mouse shaped cake sitting on the table.