‘Happy Birthday’ Is Now Free For All To Sing

Celebrating a birthday this weekend?  Well, the next time you go out to a family restaurant to celebrate a birthday, the servers will be able to sing Happy Birthday as we know it, love it and as it was meant to be!

How come? A judge just approved a settlement  (June 27th) that officially puts the "Happy Birthday" song in the public domain, meaning anyone can use it without having to pay a licensing fee.

The settlement ends Warner/Chappell Music's ownership claims to the song, and requires it to pay back $14 million to those who paid to use it.

The same judge ruled last year that Warner/Chappell, which bought the company that had ownership of the song in 1988, didn't own the lyrics and had no right to charge for use of one of the world's best-known and most beloved songs, which was created in 1893 by a Kentucky schoolteacher and her sister.

Warner/Chappell had said it didn't try to get royalties from just anyone who sang the song, but only from people who used it in a commercial enterprise.  Bottom line, they lose 14-million off their bottom line.  Happy Birthday!