Unhappy Birthday

Did you know Happy Birthday is copyrighted and the copyright is currently owned and actively enforced by Time Warner?

Did you know that if you sing any copyrighted song:
...at a place open to the public
...or among a substantial number of people who are not family or friends
You are involved in a public performance of that work?

Did you know an unauthorized public performance is a form of copyright infringement?

Is Happy Birthday Really Copyrighted?

Yes.

The melody for Happy Birthday was first penned by two sisters from Kentucky, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill. The song was called Good Morning to All, but bore the recognizable melody. The tune was first published in 1893 in the book Song Stories for the Kindergarten. The melody has since passed into the public domain, and is safe to hum in public without permission.

While it is not entirely clear who first wrote down the words for Happy Birthday, it showed up in a few places before Jessica Hill (another Hill sister) was able to demonstrate undeniable similarities between Good Morning to All and Happy Birthday and to secure the copyright to the song.

Working with the Clayton F. Summy Publishing Company, Jessica Hill published and copyrighted Happy Birthday in 1935. While the copyright should have expired in 1991, copyright has been extended repeatedly over the last quarter of the twentieth century and the copyright for Happy Birthday is now not due to expire until at least 2030.

The Clayton F. Summy Company is no longer independent, but, through a chain of purchases, the copyright for Happy Birthday To You lies securely in the hands of the Time Warner company. Happy Birthday's copyright is licensed and enforced by ASCAP, and the simple little ditty brings in more than USD $2 million in annual royalties.

For more information on the history of the tune, lyrics, and copyright status, check out these resources:

Is Singing Happy Birthday in Public Really Copyright Infringement?

Yes.

According to United States copyright law in United States Code, Title 17 §106, authors of works such as musical compositions have the exclusive right "to perform the copyrighted work publicly." In United States Code, Title 17 §101, the law defines publicly performing a work as "to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered."

This means that if you sing Happy Birthday to your family at home, you're probably not committing copyright infringment. However, if you do it in an restaurant — and if the restaurant hasn't already worked out a deal with ASCAP — you may be engaging in copyright infringement.

How Can I Help Stop Infringement?

The best way to stop infringement is to tell the authorities and the owners so that they can follow up and arrange for a license and for royalties to be paid. Licenses for Happy Birthday are controlled by ASCAP. While monetary royalties will be negligible for a single restaurant performance, it is the principle that is at stake.

If you have seen someone singing Happy Birthday in a restaurant, a park, or at a school, you should tell ASCAP so that they can arrange for a license. If you are an offender, you should apologize and offer to pay whatever is due — a nickel, a quarter, a dollar — whatever ASCAP demands.

There is an overwhelming amount of copyright infringement of Happy Birthday. Let's right the balance and tell ASCAP about every one of these violations!

There are many ways to get in contact with ASCAP:

Email
licensing@ascap.com

Mailing Address
ASCAP - New York
One Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023

Phone
1-800-505-4052

It would also be a good idea to keep the song's owner — Time Warner — in the loop. Here is their contact information:

Mailing Address
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019-8016

Phone
1-212-484-8000

If you're going to send a message, here's a sample letter. (Before sending such a letter, you should know that some restaurants, nightclubs, etc., pay for blanket ASCAP catalogue licenses that might exempt patrons from copyright liability for singing during dinner.) You'll want to modify yours to include correct details on the infringement:

Dear ASCAP,

The copyright status of "Happy Birthday To You" and the law
related to public performances of copyrighted works have recently been
brought to my attention. I am very concerned by the public's apparent
disregard for copyright law demonstrated by rampant infringement of
"Happy Birthday To You."

It is with this in mind that I wish to bring to your attention a
recent unauthorized public performance:

 -->> WHEN (e.g., December 10, 2004)
 -->> WHERE (e.g., at the Vol De Nuit at 148 West 4th Street in New York)
 -->> WHO (e.g., a group of patrons and the barstaff)

I hope that you are able to quickly follow up on this and to enforce
your copyright and extract the necessary royalties or licenses from
the offenders.

It is, in part, because of your lax and selective enforcement of your
copyright that most people do not realize that "Happy Birthday To You"
is even copyrighted at all.

In the event that you choose to continue selectively enforcing the
copyright in "Happy Birthday To You," for whatever reason, please
consider asking Congress to change copyright law to reflect the way that
most people view and interact with copyrighted works such as "Happy
Birthday."

Sincerely yours,
-->> YOUR NAME
-->> YOUR ADDRESS

About Us

Unhappy Birthday is a grassroots project run by citizens who are outraged by rampant copyright infringement in today's society — particularly in relation to the song Happy Birthday.

You can support us by buying overpriced items in the official Unhappy Birthday store.

You can get in contact with our leadership by emailing our copyrighteous spokesman — Benjamin Mako Hill — at mako@atdot.cc