>From https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150727/16042931768/happy-birthday-copyr ight-bombshell-new-evidence-warner-music-previously-hid-shows-song-is-publi c-domain.shtml
³Last minute evidence that completely turns a legal case on its head doesn't come about all that often -- despite what you see in Hollywood movies and TV shows. The discovery process in a lawsuit generally reveals most of the evidence revealed to everyone pretty early on. And yet... in the high profile lawsuit over the copyright status <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmmaker-finally-a ims-to-get-court-to-admit-that-happy-birthday-is-public-domain.shtml> of the song "Happy Birthday," the plaintiffs "Good Morning to You Productions" (who are making a documentary about the song and are arguing that the song is in the public domain) have popped up with a last minute filing, saying they have just come across evidence that the song is absolutely in the public domain <http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/happy-birthday-lawsuit-smoking-gu n-811144?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter>. And, here's the real kicker: they discovered this bit of evidence after two questionable things happened. (1) Warner/Chappell Music (who claims to hold the copyright for the publishing, if it exists) suddenly "found" a bunch of relevant documents that it was supposed to hand over in discovery last year, but didn't until just a few weeks ago, and (2) a rather important bit of information in one of those new documents was somewhat bizarrely "blurred out." This led the plaintiffs go searching for the original, and discover that it undermines Warner Music's arguments, to the point of showing that the company was almost certainly misleading the court. Furthermore, it definitively shows that the work was and is in the public domain. ³ This has been such an interesting example of how murky copyright can be, even for things published before 1923 (which is our usual cutoff for assuming things are in the public domain). This is a really important copyright case for this reason, and it looks like we¹ll get more information this week, since there was a hearing scheduled for tomorrow (from http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/07/filmmakers-fighting-happy-birthday-cop yright-find-their-smoking-gun/) Also, important library note: the critical 1922 edition was found in the University of Pittsburgh archives. Bam! deg farrelly Media Librarian/Streaming Video Administrator Arizona State University Libraries Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 602.332.3103 VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
