Happy Birthday to... Wait! Did You Pay your Royalty?

Hi there! I’ll bet that somewhere recently you’ve been eating birthday cake and singing Happy Birthday, right? Well  grab a mugful of coffee and a virtual treat to munch away on while I tell you why you could owe a lot of money!

There's hardly a more "generic" song than "Happy Birthday to You," but to this day (until a judge renders a decision in a pending case), Warner/Chappel Music is still trying to make big dollars off of the 16-word ditty (15 original words plus a user-supplied 16th). 

Its original copyright should have expired, at the latest, in 1921, but amendments to the law and technicalities in interpretation (e.g., did the copyright cover all public uses or just piano arrangements?) bring Warner at least $2 million a year in fees. 

A federal judge in California is expected to rule soon on whether the song is in fact uncopyrightably "generic" -- 125 years after the Hill sisters (Mildred and Patty) composed it. [CBS News, 3-27-2015]

So does that mean that every time anyone sings the song, they could be liable for a royalty payment to Warner? I guess we owe them a bunch. Well, Warner, try and collect!

I’ve decided to write a new birthday song. 

Here it is:

Merry Birthday Wishes

Birthday cake in your face

On your hands...On your shirt

Birthday cake in your mouth

On the floor...On the dog

(I haven’t written the rest yet. Got any ideas? You can share in the royalties once it catches on, okay?)

See ya, eh!

Bob

PS: It was Nong's birthday yesterday but instead of birthday cake, we had Tiramisu. Yum!