{"id":14527,"date":"2013-06-15T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T20:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=14527"},"modified":"2013-06-15T16:22:09","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T20:22:09","slug":"happy-birthday-to-sue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=14527","title":{"rendered":"“Happy birthday to…sue!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once you read this story, you have to wonder why nobody ever sued Happy Birthday before<\/a>. Well, a documentary filmmaker named Jennifer Nelson just did. And what a good lawsuit!<\/p>\n

As the NYT’s Benjamin Weiser writes:<\/p>\n

…\u00a0 although Warner\/Chappell claims ownership of \u201cHappy Birthday to You,\u201d the song was \u201cjust a public adaptation\u201d of the original song, one of Ms. Nelson\u2019s lawyers, Mark C. Rifkin, said in a phone interview. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a song created by the public, it belongs to the public, and it needs to go back to the public,\u201d Mr. Rifkin said. <\/em><\/p>\n

The entire tale makes me wonder whether every time we sing that vapid, irritating little lilt we supposedly owe something to Warner\/Chappell. I mean, every time we sing “happy birthday” and videotape it, and maybe put it on YouTube, is Warner\/Chappell going to come after us for royalties?<\/p>\n

Gee, I’d be happy to ditch “happy” and come up with another tune. Wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once you read this story, you have to wonder why nobody ever sued Happy Birthday before. Well, a documentary filmmaker named Jennifer Nelson just did. And what a good lawsuit! As the NYT’s Benjamin Weiser writes: …\u00a0 although Warner\/Chappell claims … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t