Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy?
Den amerikanske ophavsretlige status for "Happy Birthday to You" begyndte at få mere opmærksomhed med vedtagelsen af Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act i 1998. Da USA's højesteret i 2003 stadfæstede loven i Eldred v. Ashcroft, nævnte dommer Stephen Breyer udtrykkeligt "Happy Birthday to You" i sin afvigende udtalelse. Den amerikanske juraprofessor Robert Brauneis, der har forsket grundigt i sangen, konkluderede i 2010, at "den er næsten helt sikkert ikke længere omfattet af ophavsretten". I 2013 sagsøgte Good Morning to You Productions, et selskab, der producerer en dokumentarfilm om "Good Morning to All", i 2013, i vid udstrækning baseret på Brauneis' research, Warner/Chappell for fejlagtigt at hævde ophavsret til sangen. I september 2015 erklærede en føderal dommer, at Warner/Chappells krav om ophavsret var ugyldigt, idet han fastslog, at ophavsretsregistreringen kun gjaldt for et specifikt klaverarrangement af sangen og ikke for dens tekst og melodi. I 2016 indgik Warner/Chappell et forlig for 14 millioner amerikanske dollars, og retten erklærede, at "Happy Birthday to You" var offentligt tilgængelig.
The American copyright status of "Happy Birthday to You" began to draw more attention with the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned "Happy Birthday to You" in his dissenting opinion. American law professor Robert Brauneis, who extensively researched the song, concluded in 2010 that "It is almost certainly no longer under copyright." In 2013, based in large part on Brauneis's research, Good Morning to You Productions, a company producing a documentary about "Good Morning to All", sued Warner/Chappell for falsely claiming copyright to the song. In September 2015, a federal judge declared that the Warner/Chappell copyright claim was invalid, ruling that the copyright registration applied only to a specific piano arrangement of the song, and not to its lyrics and melody. In 2016, Warner/Chappell settled for US $14 million, and the court declared that "Happy Birthday to You" was in the public domain.
Happy Birthday to You