Apparently, “Happy Birthday To You” is a copyrighted work (and will be until 2030) that currently belongs to Time Warner. This means that any unauthorised performance of it – including a sing-along in a public place like a restaurant – is a breach of copyright. And, considering how common that sort of activity is, this must surely make it one of the flagrantly abused works in the history of modern intellectual property. So, if the stormtroopers of take-as-many-prisoners-as-possible copyright enforcement are really serious about their mission, they should do something about it NOW…
Of course, they won’t; so Benjamin Mako has taken up the mantle and provided a way for outraged citizenry to inform Time Warner about these shameless transgressions. Hopefully, his initiative will make a difference; and, in time, maybe birthday parties can return to being innocent celebrations of a life's milestones... instead of being the venues for wanton acts of egregiousness that they currently are… (via Boing Boing)
Posted by Warren at March 2, 2005 09:08 PM | Copyright