Is Happy Birthday copyrighted?

The tune comes from “Good Morning to All”, a song for kindergarten classes published by the sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893. Birthday words were being sung to it by the early twentieth century and appeared in print by 1912. In 1935 a music publisher registered copyrights for particular piano arrangements, and for decades its successor, Warner/Chappell, collected fees for public performances of the song in films, television and restaurants.

In 2013 a documentary maker challenged that claim. In September 2015 Judge George H. King of the US District Court in Los Angeles ruled that the 1935 registrations covered only those piano arrangements, not the lyrics, and that Warner/Chappell had no valid copyright in the words. In February 2016 the company agreed to a settlement, reported at $14 million, refunding past licensees, and that June the court approved it with the song treated as public domain.

In the EU, copyright lasts for 70 years after the author’s death. Patty Hill died in 1946, so protection there ended on 1 January 2017.

• Recordings. A particular performance, from a famous singer’s version to a jingle on a stock music site, belongs to whoever made it. Copying it into your video is copying their recording.
• New arrangements. Someone who writes a distinctive new arrangement can own that arrangement, even though the tune underneath is free.
• Other songs. Pop songs with “birthday” in the title are a different matter entirely and usually protected.

That is why social networks sometimes flag a birthday video: not because of the tune, but because of the recording someone used.

Singing it yourselves

Fine anywhere. A clip of the family singing round the cake is your own recording of a public-domain song.

Using our tunes

The arrangements under Add music were made for this site and are free to use in your video, including when you post it, and you can save one on its own with Song only in the export.

Using a chart song

If you want a pop song instead, you need the file and the right to use it; private videos sent to family are a very different situation from public posts. Birthday slideshow songs covers choosing one.