Fatwa #23 Happy Birthday to Me

In pursuing this line of judgments about intellectual property I am going to make a ruling about the "Birthday song."

Nobody should have to pay anyone for singing that song any more under any circumstances.
No matter the venue. Even if it is for profit. I don't see how anyone could profit from it, but I think if they do, then nobody should have the right to demand a cut from that profit anymore.

Once upon a time this argument was presented as a matter of a couple of greedy old ladies who held the copyright on the song. This was a useful outdated myth and it even made its way into an episode of Sports Night where a sports anchor cost his network thousands of dollars by singing Happy Birthday to him on the air.

But the old greedy bats have been dead for a while now. A long time. I doubt whether any more money will give them the leisure (now that they're dead) to come up with another song or contribution to our culture. Because they're dead. Their estate doesn't contribute anything to our culture. And it doesn't even matter, because the copyright for the birthday tune is now held by Warner. That's right. A huge corporation is cashing in on the the "artistic contribution" of a pair of old bats who may not have had much of a right to slap down the copyright they way they did to begin with.

What does this mean?
The Warner corporation subsidiary which holds these rights should immediately relinquish them to the public domain. The Birthday song is no longer a part of a living creative system, it is an excuse for intellectual property intimidation and robbery. It is an excuse for a racket, for legal bullying by legal pirates, who have letters of marque issued to them by their corporate intellectual property holders.
The Birthday song should be in the public domain. The argument that taking it away from the copyright holder would force artists and creators into starvation is fatuous. It is plainly false. This song is better off in the public domain where it can live in peace alongside Camptown Races and My Old Kentucky Home.