Ignatius Rigaskara's List: DGL Mythbuster

• The copyright for the song, which was reputedly written by Louisville sisters Patty and Mildred Hill in the 1890s, is being challenged in federal court.

• Every 5-year-old knows it. It is the most frequently sung song in the English language, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, surpassing the works of Bach, Beethoven and the Beatles, says the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• It has been sung in 143 movies, translated into at least 18 languages and used in ads to sell everything from insurance to margarin
• n 1988, Warner Communications, as it was then known, acquired the title — along with about 50,000 other songs — in a $25 million deal, and its successor, Warner/Chappell, collects licensing fees each year, which it shares with an organization founded in 1892, with the support of the Hills, called the International Kindergarten Union.

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• History of the "Happy Birthday to You" Song

• History of the Song

  The melody and lyrics were written by two sisters - Mildred J. Hill (born 1859) and Patty Smith Hill (born 1868). Patty was a schoolteacher who developed the "Patty Hill blocks" and was a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College.

• irthday to You" melody which clearly resembles the melody of "Good Morning to All," the song her sisters originally wrote. In 1935, Jessica, who was working with publisher Clayton F. Summy Company, copyrighted and published "Happy Birthday."

  In the 1930s the Clayton F. Summy Company was bought by John F. Sengstack and renamed it Birch Tree Ltd. In 1998, Birch Tree Ltd was in turn bought by Warner Chappell for $25 million. The company is now known as Summy-Birchard Music. It is reported that the birthday song brings in about $2 million a year in royalties with half going to Summy-Birchard and the other half to the Hill Foundation.

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• ‘Happy Birthday’: Who Owns the Rights?
• Usually, “Happy Birthday” is a happy, celebratory song that often precedes cake and ice cream. But it might soon become part of  a contentious legal battle.
• Jennifer Nelson, the president and owner of the New York based Good Morning to You Production Corp., is producing a documentary about the history of “Happy Birthday to You.” One of the scenes in the film includes the actual song. But in order for Nelson to obtain the rights to “Happy Birthday,” the music company Warner/Chappell, a division of Warner Music Corp., required her to pay a licensing fee of $1,500.
• “No one has claimed even to write the words to the song ‘Happy Birthday to You,’ because it started with ‘Good Morning to All,’ ” Pollack explained. “Somewhere along the lines someone starts singing ‘Happy Birthday to You’ but it wasn’t Warner/Chappell who wrote the words and has the copyright.”

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• 'Happy Birthday to You' was written by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill and first published in 1893 as 'Good Morning to All'
• Warner/Chappel Music Inc came to own song's copyright, allowing it to collect millions of dollars in licensing fees
• Songwriters: The simple four-line ditty was written in 1893 by Mildred and Patty Hill, two sisters from Louisville, Kentucky, and it was intended as a musical greeting performed in school by teachers
• Warner/Chappell  claims exclusive copyright to what Guinness World Records has called  the most famous song in the English language. According to the lawsuit,  the company has collected at least $2million annually in licensing fees.
• Whenever  'Happy Birthday to You' is being sung for profit, as in movies,  television shows and concerts, the performers or producers are required  to pay licensing fees, or face a copyright infringement lawsuit.
• ‘If you want to  sing it at your home at a birthday party you don't have to pay anything,  because that is a private performance,’ said George Washington  University School of Law professor Robert Brauneis. ’But if you want to  use it in a television show, a movie, or a television commercial, you'll  pay anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000 for those rights.’

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