Happy Birthday is that way too. Walt Disney didn’t invent it, people have been singing that song since before IP was a thing, but Disney owns the patent for it. IP is just so transparently bullshit.
It’s actually in the public domain, and Disney never claimed copyright.
The company that had been collecting copyright fees was found to have never held a valid copyright, and that any valid copyright would have long expired if anyone actually did have one which was unproven, and the company had to payback the money they collected.
That just makes it worse…just because.
Happy Birthday is that way too. Walt Disney didn’t invent it, people have been singing that song since before IP was a thing, but Disney owns the patent for it. IP is just so transparently bullshit.
It’s actually in the public domain, and Disney never claimed copyright.
The company that had been collecting copyright fees was found to have never held a valid copyright, and that any valid copyright would have long expired if anyone actually did have one which was unproven, and the company had to payback the money they collected.
Everyone working at restaurants clapped
along to the original tune when it was verified legal to w/o payments!
It’s not possible to patent a song.
Disney never held the copyright.
It’s been public domain since 2017 in Europe and since 2016 in the US and almost certainly long before.