So I have been going around for years telling people that Michael Jackson owned the rights to the song Happy Birthday. I had heard it ages ago and took it as truth, he's weird and a money grubber so it wasn't hard to believe. But I decided to check it out after my cousin said her heard it was an urban legend. Turns out he was right.
The melody for Happy Birthday was written by Mildred Hill for a song called Good Morning to You in 1893. The words don't have a clear author but are first printed with the melody in 1924. The song was copyrighted in 1935 and extended under the copyright act of 1975 and that has it copyrighted until 2030. The rights are currently owned by Summy-Birchard Music, part of AOL Time Warner.
For more information see:
Snopes
Songfacts
The melody for Happy Birthday was written by Mildred Hill for a song called Good Morning to You in 1893. The words don't have a clear author but are first printed with the melody in 1924. The song was copyrighted in 1935 and extended under the copyright act of 1975 and that has it copyrighted until 2030. The rights are currently owned by Summy-Birchard Music, part of AOL Time Warner.
For more information see:
Snopes
Songfacts
This site is run by a Debian developer and hits the nail on the head, sarcastically:
http://unhappybirthday.com/