Should "Happy Birthday" be Protected by Copyright? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios Video Lecture | Understanding Copyright and Fair Use for Education - Self Help Learning

here's an idea you're not allowed to
sing happy birthday happy birthday is
the Guinness Book of World Records
holder for the most performed song ever
you've probably heard it more than all
of those Justin Bieber Katy Perry
Rihanna and One Direction songs combined
unless you work in the food court at the
mall in which case I am very sorry but
for all the times your family and
friends have sung and off-key happy
birthday to you or you've sung it to a
friend in a crowded restaurant and
they've turned you right red there's
probably a lot you don't know like who
wrote happy birthday and when it was
fighting a Mildred Hill in 1893 and that
you're actually not allowed to perform
in public without licensing it because
despite being a hundred nineteen years
old it's still protected by copyright
wait what I know it's weird but it kind
of makes sense sort of let's talk about
copyright for a second before we decide
whether or not happy birthday should
still be copy written or copyrighted
copy wrote copyright is complex but the
aims are noble one aim is to incentivize
creators for making awesome junk and to
protect their awesome junk from people
who want to copy their awesome junk but
don't have the right that's where the
name copyright comes from actually in
order to copy something you need to have
that right that copyright another aim is
to provide a system by which those works
end up available to the public thus
increasing the pool of freely available
culture once a copyright expires that
once protected work is then in the
public domain
once it worked like James Joyce's
Ulysses or George a Romero's Night of
the Living Dead is in the public domain
it's available to her Bertie
and not just her body in the clear but
like her birdie to remix remake alter
perform go nuts you could make a
novelization of Night of the Living
Ulysses space rock opera ballet on ice
the movie and charge $45 for or you
could make awesome comics out of classic
lit link in the description but once a
work is in the public domain it means
the original creator doesn't profit as
easily or in the same way from their
creation anymore which some people some
of whom have a lot of money and very
much like their money think isn't cool
at all even a little actual like imagine
if Barbie Mickey and Luke Skywalker were
in the public domain there go the
revenue models of some majorly
successful people and businesses not to
mention someone would probably make some
kind of like terrible Disney fied Star
Wars crossover
huh they did they did what you have got
to be kidding me that is the stupidest
to continually protect these creative
works in the u.s. at least we've been
extending copyright terms thus keeping
these things out of the public domain
historically we focused more on their
ownership and profitability than on
adding to the pool of freely available
culture originally only 14 years
copyright terms grew to 28
56 and 75 years then life of the author
plus 50 years 70 years 95 years and in
some cases life of the author plus a
hundred and twenty years for some
perspective if this had always been the
case you could have been around for the
annexation of the state of Texas and the
copyright on your banjo Diddy would just
about be expiring like violet the
Chocolate Factory copyright terms keep
growing and growing and growing now
happy birthday isn't nearly as
profitable as Mickey but it is a
beneficiary or victim depending upon how
you look at it of the same system Patty
and Mildred Hill put some blood sweat
and tears into good morning to all the
song which gives happy birthday its
melody they sold it to a publisher in
1893 who sold his business to another
publisher whose brother took over and
then bought other publishers at some
point in here good morning to all was
given happy birthdays lyrics and thanks
to innumerable and mercurial cultural
forces it became the song we know
enjoyed happy birthday not long after
that in the late 20th century happy
birthday is now much larger than it was
in 1893 publisher sold for millions of
dollars to the Warner Music Group who
still holds the copyright for happy
birthday until 2030 that's right the
people who owned the works for do the
Deftones and dragonforce own happy
birthday until the Year ghost in the
shell' stand alone complex takes place
happy birthday rakes in 2 mil a year for
Warner who at one point sought royalties
for all public performance including
that by waitstaff at restaurants like
Red Lobster which feels just icky
holding a hundred year old piece of much
beloved and shared culture hostage for
something like 0.1 percent of your
annual revenue HPD has certainly come a
long way since that kindergarten
classroom in the eighteen
the history and legality of this whole
thing is complicated and really
interesting but happy birthday seems to
indicate that maybe we've tilted towards
one of copyrights to original aims if
you want to know more there's a really
great paper by robert brown eyes about
happy birthday and copyright link in the
description but the essential argument
is this at the point that ASCAP was
shaking down Outback Steakhouse for
protection money like some sort of chain
restaurant mafia were Mildred or patty
or anyone even related to them
benefiting at all and furthermore is the
fact that happy birthday is still
protected stifling culture in some ways
if the purpose of copyright is to
incentivize creators while at the same
time ensuring that at some point all
culture is available is it militaristic
in one way and I'll loosey-goosey in
another way or is it all gravy I mean
nothing should be more aggressively
protected than the creative work that
comes from your soul right not to
mention when someone makes Bank at a
hedge fund they don't have to spend
their paycheck within 14 years before it
becomes a public resource just because
something is a piece of culture does
that mean we have to treat it
differently allowed at some point to be
consumed or performed by Herbert E even
and maybe especially the staff at Red
Lobster what do you guys think should
happy birthday be protected by copyright
let us know in the comments and click on
my moustache please maybe we could all
learn a thing or two from those
sandwiches
I mean comments let's eat you guys had
to say about adventure time queer DUI uh
seven and a couple other people brought
up Avatar The Last Airbender and Legend
of Korra as possible contenders for best
animated series of all time
I would agree if there wasn't so much
space between every series but I do
legitimately love that show it's very
good unrelated note otaku minion brought
up Animaniacs which is one of my
favorite shows growing up but it's still
kind of in the looney tunes slapstick
area of cartoons and not really end up
punch you in the fields area that avatar
the last airbender and adventure timer
in so different a little bit different
red llama five you're right i don't know
that many kids but I did ask friends who
have kids and while they're kids don't
watch Adventure Time they do so that has
to be worth something right Naruto rocks
85 and golden image said that
I was completely off base and that
nostalgia has nothing to do with
adventure times popularity they don't
experience it even a little which is
totally fair can't just count personal
experience cess Leyva
I think Lemongrab would be my favorite
character too if the snow golem didn't
exist but he is also very scary he's
actually terrifying the voice it's
poking weird there's also a really great
comment thread on reddit we'll put a
link in the description about the
Adventure Time episode the one thing I
kind of want to respond to is that
nothing is ever just good goodness is a
thing that happens within the viewer not
a characteristic of a piece of media and
so for us it's really fun to sort of
figure out where that is and why that
happens that's our kind of endlessly
dissecting I guess is the phrase to use
but you should check it out it's a very
good comment