After 80 years of creating different version of the famous ¨Happy Birthday" tune without really knowing who was owner of its copyrights, we finally have an answer.

In order to use this famous song, one had to pay royalties, but a federal judge in Los Angeles has a recently sentence that there are no legal ownership titles. The piece was registered for the first time in 1935 and in 1988 Warner/Chappell purchase the rights.

Judge George King, explains that the copyright acquired by the company was actually only the tune and not the actual song. The tune was composed in 1893, gaining popularity in 1930 thanks to appearances on TV and film.

Every time we hear "Happy Birthday To You", there is a profit of $25 dlls. The lawsuit against Warner started in 2013 and after careful investigations, the song was left available for anyone who wants to make use of it. The company seeks to present options upon Judge King in order to try to regain copyright, but chances are looking very unlikely.

Source LA Times

Stay connected to San Diego Red through Facebook and Twitter.

editorial@sandiegored.com

zyanya.figueroa@sandiegored.com