History Main / HappyBirthdayToYou

That all changed in TheNewTens. In 2013, a lawsuit was filed against Warner/Chappell Music by Jennifer Nelson, whose production company, Good Morning to You Productions, was filming a documentary about the song and its history. To secure the rights to the song and ensure the documentary would be made, Nelson had to pay $1500, which she claimed was unreasonable. During pretrial hearings in 2015 – one day before a scheduled ruling, in fact – Nelson and her lawyers discovered evidence that WMG's copyright claim was likely invalid thanks to the discovery of documents "[[BlatantLies mistakenly held from them]]" by WMG, including a book published in 1922 titled ''The Everyday Song Book''. That book contained the lyrics to "Happy Birthday" with a disclaimer that they had been used with "special permission through courtesy of the Clayton F Summy Co."[[note]] (that's the company whose IP Warner Music Group ended up with in 1988)[[/note]] …but that's not a valid copyright notice, which was required at the time of publishing. [[note]] ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' had a similar issue; it was distributed to cinemas without a copyright notice, thus accidentally and automatically releasing it (and by extension pretty much all of the core zombie/undead mythos) into the public domain. That loophole and several others were closed in the 1976 Copyright Act, but the law isn't retroactive (as that would make it an ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law ex post facto]]'' law - i.e., a law potentially criminalising conduct that was legal before the law's passage, such as making copies of and/or distributing the "Happy Birthday" lyrics or prints of ''Night of the Living Dead'' - which are specifically prohibited by the United States Constitution). Plus, when it comes to lawsuits over old intellectual properties, American judges look at what the law ''used'' to be during the time period in question, rather than what it is now.[[/note]]

* This is sung on the birthday of Carmine Falcone in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween,'' which so happens to be the same day Harvey Dent is going to make a landmark case against him. [[spoiler: The comic intercuts with the song being sung to Falcone and a paid hitman attacking Dent, ending with acid being thrown into his face.]]

* In ''Podcast/HowDidThisGetMade'' the team is speculating about an imagined version of ''Film/FromJustinToKelly'' which used entirely public domain songs, singing various {{Standard Snippet}}s to each other in overwrought ''Series/AmericanIdol''-style oversinging – "oooOOooh, country 'tiiIIIIiis of theeee…". June-Diane then sings the first line of "Happy Birthday", prompting both Paul and Jason to yell at her for bankrupting the show.

** A [[SuckECheeses Wall E. Weasel]] establishment has a cheap animatronic animal band singing "You're the birthday -- you're the birthday -- you're the birthday -- boy or girl!"

''Happy Birthday to you''\\

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' gets around this by using only the opening line and changing the rest with the melody intact.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the fourth episode, Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac sing "Happy Birthday to You" to their vampire daughter Claudia on her 17th birthday, although the audience only hears the tail end of the song.

* At a time when higher quality movies wouldn't touch it, viewers of the notorious flop ''Film/TheRoom'' had the dubious honor of getting to hear the song during Johnny's birthday party; evidently, securing the rights was just one more needless expense for Tommy Wiseau to add to his collection.

''And...you smell like one too!''\\

* At the beginning of ''Film/DontBeAMenaceToSouthCentralWhileDrinkingYourJuiceInTheHood'', the moment an opening narrator tells the audience that most people living in "the hood" won't even get to reach the age of 21, he is presented with a birthday cake with lit candles for his 21st birthday as a friend sings, "Happy Birthday, Homey." Interestingly, there is brief pause for additional dialogue to further space out the first and second lines of the song before the friend with the cake stops singing before the third line to tell the narrator to make a birthday wish and blow out the candles. The birthday festivities then come to an abrupt end when [[DiedOnTheirBirthday the narrator gets shot in the back and dies]].

Time will tell what effect this has on public performances of the song, though at least one thing is finally certain -- producers, filmmakers, average citizens posting birthday parties on Website/YouTube, and [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic people washing their hands while singing to this song twice as a recommended way to kill germs]] can now sing the familiar refrain without having to worry about Warner Music Group [[ScrewedByTheLawyers tackling them to the ground out of nowhere and slapping a $10,000 fine on them]].

* ''LightNovel/MayoChiki'' has an original birthday song composed for Kureha's birthday. Compared to other substitutions, it's not a bad song.

-->''Happy, happy birthday, yay!\\

* Zig-zagged with the ''[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]]'' franchise. In the ''Barney and the Backyard Gang'' video "The Backyard Show", "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" is used as a birthday song, while in the ''Barney and Friends'' TV series, the actual Happy Birthday song is used instead. It was also used in three different stage shows related to the franchise.

* Zig-zagged with the ''[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]]'' franchise. In "The Backyard Show", "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" is used as a birthday song, while in the ''Barney and Friends'' TV series, the actual Happy Birthday song is used instead. It was also used in three different stage shows related to the franchise.

* In the ''Series/DonkeyHodie'' episode "Purple Planet Party", an original birthday song is sung to Purple Panda's mother about Purple Panda's favorite things about her.

* ''Anime/SakuraWarsTV'' has an episode where the mostly-Asian team tries to celebrate Iris' birthday in the Western manner to which she is accustomed, including an attempt at singing an original "happy birthday" song. Kanna is still singing bits of the song to herself several episodes later...

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'' opens on Mr. Snake's birthday. Despite him being a grumpy BirthdayHater, the rest of the gang insist on celebrating it at their hideout. When the cake comes out, Mr. Piranha begins to serenade him with the Happy Birthday song... barely three notes in, Snake [[MusicalusInterruptus immediately blows out his candles to shut him up.]]

** In another episode this is lampshaded. Carl and the Agents of OWCA want to sing a birthday song for Major Monogram but they "couldn't get the rights to that famous birthday song" so they make one up. Despite being awful due to being a chorus of out of sink animals who can't talk, Major Monogram thinks it's beautiful.

* The original Japanese version of ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' has the Neighbors Club singing the traditional Happy Birthday song to Kobato before she blows out her candles. The English dub, however, has them sing an original song which is very bizarre indeed:

* {{Inverted|trope}} for the ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' "Spamton Sweepstakes" livestream, where the "[[NationalAnthem National Spamton]]" is an off-key marching band rendition of "Happy Birthday" that starts, stops and repeats at random points and is used as a substitute for "The Star-Spangled Banner" (a song that has ''always'' been public domain) to illustrate Spamton's insanity. Spamton A. Spamton ([[ItMakesSenseInContext a Spamton impersonator]]) stands for the anthem as a flag of Spamton is hoisted just as sporadically as the song itself.

* {{Inverted|trope}} for the livestream for the ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' "Spamton Sweepstakes", where the "[[NationalAnthem National Spamton]]" is an off-key marching band rendition of "Happy Birthday" that starts, stops and repeats at random points and is used as a substitute for "The Star-Spangled Banner" (a song that has ''always'' been public domain) to illustrate Spamton's insanity. Spamton A. Spamton ([[ItMakesSenseInContext a Spamton impersonator]]) stands for the anthem as a flag of Spamton is hoisted just as sporadically as the song itself.

* During the livestream for the ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' "Spamton Sweepstakes", the "[[NationalAnthem National Spamton]]" is an off-key marching band rendition of "Happy Birthday" that starts, stops and repeats at random points. Spamton A. Spamton ([[ItMakesSenseInContext a Spamton impersonator]]) stands for the anthem as a flag of Spamton is hoisted just as sporadically as the song itself.