Happy Birthday...to Justice!

One of history's greatest crimes has been finally brought to justice. Well, not so much one of history's greatest crimes, but...uh...well, it's not really that big of a deal, but kinda interesting. As I wrote about in this space before, for years Warner Chappell Music has claimed to hold a copyright on the song Happy Birthday. How they got it, or why it was theirs, they've never explained, but they have been happy to charge millions to anyone wanting to use it.

But finally, justice has prevailed! And what's more, it's prevailed in the most American criminal justice system way possible -- the claim to copyright was not rejected because it's insane than anyone can claim they own the copyright to a possibly-centruies old folk song, but because Warner Chappell Music couldn't prove they had a copyright specifically to the lyrics. Kind of a convoluted way to get there, but we got there nonetheless.