Most of us have been in a restaurant when someone is celebrating a birthday. In many chain restaurants, the wait staff will gather around the table and sing a song to the celebrant. It usually isn’t “Happy Birthday to You” however, as the lyrics are still protected under copyright.
The George Washington University Law School has a page with links to an exhaustive amount of information on the background of the song’s copyright history.
The history of the lyrics, the music that goes with them, and the copyright is a confusing mesh of publishing, litigation, and royalties. You have been warned.
The history of all this is also fascinating, and a good example of how complex it can be to determine copyright issues for even the worlds most popular song (according to the Guinness Book of World Records, according to Wikipedia with a “citation needed” note).
