If you've ever been to a restaurant when it’s someone’s birthday, then you know what I am talking about. Each restaurant has their own unique version of ‘Happy Birthday’ that they sing to patrons.

I never really thought much of it until one day when someone told me that the song ‘Happy Birthday’ is copyrighted. That means that if you sing the song, you have to pay royalties to the person who owns the rights to the song.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a federal judge has ruled that Warner/Chappell, which has been making around $2 million a year from ‘Happy Birthday to You’, doesn’t have the rights to the song and never did. The judge ruled that a copyright filed in 1935 and acquired by Warner in 1988 only covered specific piano arrangements of the tune and not the lyrics.

The song started out as ‘Good Morning to All’, written by a Kentucky schoolteacher and her sister in the 1890’s, and the judge found that there was no evidence that the sisters had even written the better-known lyrics. Warner wasn’t in the habit of sending lawyers to raid birthday parties, but it did expect to get paid whenever the song was used in ads, movies, or any other profit-making enterprise.

Plaintiffs in the long-running lawsuit included the makers of a documentary about the song and singer Rupa Marya, who had to pay $455 for including it on a live album. Lawyers say they now plan to make the suit a class-action one to force Warner to pay back some of the royalties.

If you are ever on Jeopardy this tidbit might help you...I recently read that the 3 songs played most in America are 'Happy Birthday', 'The Star Spangled Banner', and 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame'.

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