“We Shall Overcome,” a song that was the “unofficial anthem to the civil rights movement,” was wrongly placed under copyright and should be put in the public domain, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court. The complaint (PDF) was filed by the same group of lawyers who succeeded at putting the world’s most famous song, Happy Birthday, into the public domain after years of …
Fresh from a $14 million victory that had Warner/Chappell backing off from ownership claims over “Happy Birthday to You,” the attorneys at Wolf Haldenstein now have chosen their encore with a new lawsuit that seeks to establish that the worldwide famous protest song, “We Shall Overcome,” is conclusively in the public domain. The putative class action, filed Tuesday in New York federal court …
Sing the song, blow out the candles, eat the cake and unwrap the gifts. According to a court filing on Monday, music publisher Warner/Chappell will pay $14 million to end a lawsuit challenging its hold on the English language’s most popular song, “Happy Birthday to You.” Additionally, the settlement stipulates a proposed final judgment and order that would declare the song to be in the public …