Your least favorite song is now less annoying, or, at least, less costly.

Yesterday, Hon. George King of the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California issued his opinion in Rupa Marya, et al. v. Warner/Chappell Music, and held that those companies that have been collecting royalties on performances of “Happy Birthday to You” over the last 80 years or so (yes, there are some, and the most recent purported owner has been racking up about $2 million per year in licensing fees from commercial use) do not actually own the song.  In a 43-page opinion that, for the record, makes it something like 300 times the length of the song it is about, Judge King determined that the song’s original copyright, obtained by the Clayton F. Summy Company from the song’s alleged writers, Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R. R. Forman covered only certain specific arrangements of the song and not its lyrics.

As in the case of many an old song, the melody came from elsewhere, and is attributed to sisters Patty and Mildred Hill, who wrote “Good Morning to All.” Judge King noted that has long been in the public domain, though, again, the writer is somewhat in question.  Because Summy Company never did acquire the rights to the lyrics, its successor in interest–Warner/Chappell Music–never acquired them either.

There’s more to Judge King’s opinion than fits into a little post like this, but the upshot of it all is that, when your Uncle Bob starts getting drunk and rowdy and singing to you at your birthday soiree, you can no longer shut him up with the threat of calling the copyright police.  Wait, am I the only one who does that?