Editing 1581: Birthday

[[xkcd]] turns 10 years old on September 30, 2015 (a week after the release of this comic). In this comic [[Randall]] honors his webcomic by singing to it the classic "{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" song.

"{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" is one of the most commonly sung songs in the English language (and is common in many others). Because of its age, ubiquity and simplicity, it has long surprised people to learn that it was not in the public domain. {{w|Warner/Chappell Music}} claimed the copyright to the lyrics, and has demanded royalties for any recording, publication or public performance for commercial purposes. Total revenues for this song were estimated at US$2 million annually.

This strip refers to a ruling, from the day before the release of this comic, by a federal judge in California ({{w|George H. King|George King}}), stating that the song is not covered by a valid copyright (see [http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-happy-birthday-song-lawsuit-decision-20150922-story.html Warner's 'Happy Birthday' Copyright Not Valid, Judge Rules]). This ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed by Good Morning To You Productions (singer {{w|Rupa Marya}} and filmmaker {{w|Robert D. Siegel|Robert Siegel}}) against Warner/Chappel Music to declare Warner/Chappel's copyright claim in the song invalid (filing at [http://www.scribd.com/doc/147645129/Happybirthday]). With this ruling, the court declared that Warner/Chappell does not have a copyright claim to the song, and therefore the song can now be sung or published by anyone, in any context, without having to pay royalties to Warner/Chappell.

 

The ruling does not go so far as to declare the song to be in the public domain, leaving it more correctly defined as an {{w|orphan work}}. Randall seems to be celebrating the fact that this strip, which would have put him at risk for a lawsuit the day before, is now unlikely to be challenged since the odds of a new party appearing and successfully claiming copyright on the lyrics and subsequently demanding license fees is approximately zero.

 

{{w|Chuck E. Cheese's}} is an entertainment restaurant, geared toward young children, which routinely hosts birthday parties as part of its business model. Parties held in commercial venues tend to be a gray area for this kind of issue. Singing copyrighted songs at a private function is allowed, but the staff of a restaurant singing them to patrons could be considered a commercial performance, and potentially expose the restaurant to claims from the copyright holder. The title text suggests that [[Randall]] was at a family birthday party, witnessed someone (possibly the staff) singing "Happy Birthday", and called the police. This would be an extreme overreaction in any case (even if it were a violation, copyright infringement is a civil liability, not a criminal offense), but the decision that the copyright wasn't valid in the first place makes such an action even more indefensible.

:In light of last night's court ruling in

:[The song text is written, with nine musical notes, three groups on each side of the text, above a birthday cake with 10 lit candles. The cake has two distinct layers. On each layer there are drawn 6 xkcd stick figures with small black bullets between them. The center bullet in the bottom layer is shaped like a heart. The figures at the edges can be difficult to recognize. The figures in the upper layer and from the left are: A man with a hat (hard to see if it is one of the recognized characters), White Hat, Megan, Pony Tail, Hairy and Cueball (hard to see him properly). Similar in the lower layer: Black Hat, Danish, Beret Guy, Rob, Cutie, and a girl (hard to see, but looks like girls hair, not a hat).]