Songbook discovered in Pitt's archives likely to lead to $14M 'Happy Birthday' settlement
A tentative settlement in a court case in which a key piece of evidence was found in the University of Pittsburgh's archives allows those who paid for use of the song “Happy Birthday to You” as far back as 1949 to recoup some or all of their money, according to court papers.
Warner Music Group and others who fought to hold the copyright on “Happy Birthday to You” have given up their claims to the song, according to a proposed settlement that signals the end of a contentious three-year dispute.
The proposed deal, disclosed Monday in court filings, offers up to $14 million for those who paid licensing fees to use the song. The settlement is tentative, pending approval by U.S. District Judge George H. King in Los Angeles.
Librarians at the University of Pittsburgh workers had found a 1927 songbook in Pitt's archives that led King to decide that the music publishing company, which had been collecting royalties on the song for years, does not hold a valid copyright on the lyrics.
Kathy Miller Haines, associate director of Pitt's Center for American Music, which is part of the university's library system, and two other librarians found the “The Everyday Song Book” in July in Pitt's Special Collections Department after library administrators received a request from the plaintiffs' attorneys, who knew Pitt had one of the book's earliest copies.
The librarians went through the songbook page by page until they found the song, then sent it to the plaintiff's attorneys.
King determined the original copyright, obtained by the Clayton F. Summy Co. from the song's writers, only covered specific piano arrangements and not the lyrics. The basic tune of the song, derived from another popular children's song, “Good Morning to All,” has long been in the public domain.
If the judge signs off on the agreement, Warner/Chappell Music no longer would collect fees to use the song, which, by some estimates, brought the company as much as $2 million per year in royalties. The lawsuit was filed in 2013 by a group of filmmakers who believed the ubiquitous song should be in the public domain.
The tune, written in 1893 by Patty Smith Hill and sister Mildred J. Hill, originally was titled “Good Morning to All.” The sisters included it in a children's music book and left the copyright with their publisher.
A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for March 14 in Los Angeles.
