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The settlement, unveiled in federal court in Los Angeles on
Monday, would eliminate the music publisher's claimed ownership
of the song. It also specifies that once the settlement is
approved by the court, the song will be in the public domain. A
hearing is scheduled for March 14.
A group of artists and filmmakers filed a class action lawsuit
in 2013 against Warner/Chappell, the music publishing arm of
privately held Warner Music Group. In a court filing on Monday,
the group hailed the settlement as "unquestionably an excellent
result."
"We are pleased to bring this matter to resolution," a
Warner/Chappell spokeswoman said in a statement on Tuesday.
The settlement money will be distributed among those who paid
licensing fees for the song back to 1949.
In September, Chief U.S. District Judge George King ruled that
Warner/Chappell, the music publishing arm of privately owned
Warner Music Group, did not have a valid copyright claim to the
song's lyrics.
The case garnered attention from around the world not only
because the tune is so commonly performed, but because many
people were not aware it was still under copyright, let alone
purportedly owned by a major corporation.
People who sing "Happy Birthday" in their homes or at private
gatherings have typically never been at risk of a lawsuit. But
when the song was used for commercial purposes, such as in
films, Warner demanded payment and took in an estimated $2
million in royalties for such uses each year.
The song has a complicated history reaching back to the 1893
publication of "Good Morning to All," a children's song written
by a Kentucky woman named Mildred Hill and her sister, Patty.
That melody eventually came to be sung with the familiar "Happy
Birthday" lyrics.
Warner contended its copyright to the lyrics came through the
Hill sisters' publisher that it had acquired. But King said that
publisher never obtained the rights to the lyrics and so neither
did Warner.
(Corrects spelling of Warner/Chappell in paragraph one and date
of hearing to March 14 in paragraph 3)
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and
Steve Orlofsky)
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