NEW YORK: Happy Birthday to You is the subject of a fresh US legal dispute, with a production firm claiming the tune’s copyright owner has no exclusive right to the most popular song in the English language. Good Morning to You Productions (GMTY) has filed suit in a federal court in New York against Warner/Chappell Music demanding that the government declare invalid its copyright over the song, saying it belongs in the public domain. The lawsuit also demands the return of “millions of dollars of unlawful licensing fees collected by defendant Warner/Chappell pursuant to its wrongful assertion of copyright ownership of the song,” the 26-page suit says. The production company, which is making a documentary on the tune, said it was forced to pay $1,500 to use the song in order to avoid being fined $150,000 for unauthorised use. A spokesman for Warner/Chappell declined to comment. According to GMTY, the tune comes from a song called “Good Morning to All,” which was composed in 1893 by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill, who sold the rights to Clayton F. Summy. The song in its present form was released in 1924 by Robert Coleman, setting off a series of legal disputes.
Prince William ‘has Indian genes’
LONDON: Britain’s Prince William will become the country’s first king to have proven Indian roots after saliva samples revealed direct lineage to the Commonwealth’s most populous nation, the Times reported yesterday. DNA from the second-in-line to the throne’s sample was linked to that of a woman now known to have been at least half-Indian, according to researchers at the University of Edinburgh. It had previously been assumed that Eliza Kewark, the duke’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother was Armenian, but DNA passed down the female line revealed that she was at least half-Indian, the Times reported. University of Edinburgh genetics expert Jim Wilson, who carried out the tests, said the proof of William’s Indian roots was “unassailable”. William and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge, who are expecting their first child in July, are yet to visit India.
Two dead in North Sea gas rig blast
THE HAGUE: Two people were killed and one seriously injured yesterday in an accident on a North Sea gas rig operated by France’s GDF Suez, the coastguard said. “We received a call at 0750 GMT that two people were dead and one seriously injured after an accident during testing of rig equipment,” coastguard spokesman Peter Verburg said. The injured man, of Dutch nationality, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Leeuwarden where he is in a stable condition. GDF Suez said that the accident occurred “during pressure tests on equipment” on the rig around 100km northwest of the Dutch coast. There were 16 people on the rig at the time, including the casualties.
UK agrees more spending cuts
LONDON: British ministries have agreed to spending cuts of £3.6bn ($5.7bn), the government said yesterday, leaving it less than two weeks to wring over two-thirds of its £11.5bn target from 10 remaining departments. Britain’s two-party coalition government is cutting spending to try to rein in a £114.2bn deficit expected in the 2015/2016 budget in the face of calls from the International Monetary Fund to invest more now to avoid crimping a fragile recovery.
Agencies
