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About Frackin’ Time: Someone’s suing over Happy Birthday’s copyright status.

[RFEE3 ELSHAN ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ]Jennifer Nelson is my hero!

The song “Happy Birthday to You” is widely credited for being the most performed song in the world. But one of its latest venues may be the federal courthouse in Manhattan, where the only parties may be the litigants to a new legal battle.

The dispute stems from a lawsuit filed on Thursday by a filmmaker in New York who is seeking to have the court declare the popular ditty to be in the public domain, and to block a music company from claiming it owns the copyright to the song and charging licensing fees for its use.

The filmmaker, Jennifer Nelson, was producing a documentary movie, tentatively titled “Happy Birthday,” about the song, the lawsuit said. In one proposed scene, the song was to be performed.

Read the full story @ NewYorkTimes.com. For more on the history of, and an investigation into, the copyright status of Happy Birthday, please take the time to read Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song by Robert Brauneis, George Washington University – Law School. Yes it’s a law journal article but it’s one I’m assuming will be referenced in this case.

Published by Michael Sauers

Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year. Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.

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