User:Kaldari/Happy Birthday to You

Copyright status
The song "Happy Birthday to You" consists of two copyrightable elements: the lyrics and the melody. Each of these elements is protected independently.

Melody
The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" is the same as that of the earlier song "Good Morning to All". "Good Morning to All" was written by Mildred Hill and Patty Hill sometime before 1893. In 1893, the sisters transferred their rights to the song to Clayton F. Summy. Summy published the song the same year in a songbook titled Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Copyright protection for Song Stories, including the lyrics and melody for "Good Morning to All" expired in 1949. Thus the melody for "Happy Birthday to You" is now in the public domain in the United States and countries that follow the rule of the shorter term.

Lyrics
The origin of the lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" is not clear. In a 1934 deposition, Patty Hill claimed that she wrote the "Happy Birthday" lyrics around the same time as "Good Morning to All". This claim has been disputed, however.

The full lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" were first published in the 1911 book The Elementary Worker and His Work. This book did not credit any author for the lyrics and it is unknown whether this publication occurred with authorization of the lyrics' author (whoever that may have been). The music and lyrics for both "Happy Birthday to You" and "Good Morning to All" were subsequently published in The Everyday Song Book in 1922 as a single song titled "Good Morning and Birthday Song". The caption under the song reads: "Special permission through courtesy of The Clayton F. Summy Co." There is no evidence, however, that The Clayton F. Summy Co. held the copyright for "Happy Birthday to You", as there is no record of

http://ia601904.us.archive.org/13/items/gov.uscourts.cacd.564772/gov.uscourts.cacd.564772.244.0.pdf