“Happy Birthday” Lawsuit

It’s the one of the most famous songs in the English language, but it doesn’t belong to the masses… yet.

FOX News Radio’s Sabrina Sabbagh explains:

(“Happy Birthday” Song)

Singing “Happy Birthday” is as American as apple pie. And even though you and I can sing it as much as we want in our homes and at parties, the same licensing and copyright terms apply to “Happy Birthday” as any other song you have to pay for if you want to use it in a film, commercial, or on air at all. But a production company making a documentary about the song has filed a lawsuit over the copyright, saying the song is “dedicated to public use and in the public domain”. It asks the court to count thousands of people and groups who’ve paid Warner/Chappell Music licensing fees as part of a class action and to make the song free to use.

Sabrina Sabbagh, FOX News Radio.