Re: Happy Birthday!

On 9/12/97, 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?
>

Anybody know whether the owners of "Happy Birthday" are ASCAP or BMI members? If so, a general license from those entities would probably cover the singing. [Many, though not all restaurants, have such a license].

Mark Lemley
Assistant Professor, University of Texas School of Law Of Counsel, Fish & Richardson, P.C.
mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu

For information on the Intellectual Property program at UT, see http://www.utexas.edu/law/acadaff/intelprop/

For information on the 1998 Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference, see http://www.cfp.org

For a list of my publications, and how to find them, see http://www.law.utexas.edu/lemley/pubs.htm Received on Mon Sep 15 1997 - 14:36:36 GMT