Re: Happy Birthday!

On 12/September/1997, Lincoln Richman <lrichman[_at_]aaas.org> wrote:
>
> I've been a lurker on this list for some time and finally have a
> question which I'm not sure has ever been addressed.
>
> Recently, my wife and I went to dinner at a very popular national chain
> restaurant. As part of the restaurant's regular shtick, if a guest is
> celebrating a birthday, all of the waiters and waitresses gather around
> the celebrant and sing the "Happy Birthday" song ('Happy Birthday to
> you, Happy Birthday to you,' etc.).
>
> If I remember hearing correctly, this song is actually copyrighted (I
> always figured it was American-folkloric and therefore in the public
> domain, but I've been told otherwise).
>
> So, here's my question: Is the restaurant chain (we've heard the song
> sung at several of their locations) violating copyright law by singing
> the "Happy Birthday" song?
>
> The restaurant is definitely a "for profit" business. The fact that
> this particular restaurant sings "Happy Birthday," wheras other
> restaurants don't, helps to make the restaurant money (I've been known
> to take friends there on their birthdays just to embarrass them). The
> waiters are paid to sing the song as part of their jobs. It's a public
> performance, no?
>
> Is it possible that this particular use of "Happy Birthday" is
> considered Fair Use somehow, or should the restaurant be paying a
> royalty fee to the owner of the song?

In EUrope at least, most restaurants etc have a blanket licence from the BMI/ASCAP equivalents over here covering their use of background music, tapes etc, which would also be good for live music of this nature

John Enser
Olswang
www.olswang.co.uk
<jxe[_at_]olswang.co.uk> Received on Mon Sep 15 1997 - 08:55:09 GMT