Mark writes:
| I heard Michael Jackson bought the rights a while ago. Isn't that correct ?
That's what was reported a couple of years ago. A brief hunt turns up
some curious history of the tune. It was written in 1893, under the
tiele "Good Morning to All", as a children's school song. You'd think
it would be public domain by now. But there was a copyright battle
caused by the fact that a fellow named Robert Coleman published the
tune without permission, with the modern words, in 1903. It wasn't
actually registered with the US copyright office until 1933. The
copyright was renewed in 1963. It was owned by the Birch Tree Group,
an educational company that published Suzuki music among other
children's material. In 1988 the company was sold to Warner Brothers.
In the late 90's, WB sold a large block of tunes to Michael Jackson,
including Happy Birthday. It's not clear that he knew that he was
buying this particular tune; it was just one a a lage set that he now
collects royalties on. Happy Birthday supposedly brings in between
one and two million dollars each year.
| Frank Nordberg wrote:
|
| > (sorry, John, I cheated. I included the tune in a guitar tutorial I
| > published a while ago, so I had to know ;)
| > ...
| > Sometimes you can get away with it. Just lokk at "Love me tender" and
| > "Twist and shout".
Yeah, and this tune is such a part of public culture that you're not
likely to get much flak unless you publish a best seller. A tutorial
sold only locally in Norway is not likely worth their bother. But you
might want to check into it, and possibly substitute another tune in
the next edition if you want to avoid paying royalties.
Of course, the royalties would go to a good cause. After all, Michael
Jackson has this skin affliction that turns him pale, requiring a lot
of medical attention ...
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