It is said that in 1893, two sisters who taught at a Kindergarten School in Kentucky – Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill (no connection to the more famous 70s rocker Patty Smith) – composed a melody they called ‘Good Morning to You’, which eventually evolved into the erstwhile ‘Happy Birthday’ song.
Chicago based music publisher Clayton F. Summy Company, working with a third Hill sister, Jessica, published and copyrighted ‘Happy Birthday’ in 1935. Under the laws in effect at the time, the Hills' copyright would have expired after one 28-year term and a renewal of similar length, falling into public domain by 1991. However, the Copyright Act of 1976 extended the term of copyright protection to 75 years from date of publication, and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added another 20 years, so under current law the copyright protection of ‘Happy Birthday’ will remain intact until at least 2030. More details here.
I didn’t know Happy Birthday had a Copyright to it. Also I don’t get the point.
2 comments:
And I was wondering what you'd been up to for the past 5 years...
I suppose wishing you a Happy Birthday here and now would seem trite and also wrong...
Of course the copyriht term was then extended to life + 90 to protect disney's copyright over mickey mouse. Fucking disgusting.
Post a Comment