Earlier this week, we wrote about fairly damning new evidence that almost certainly shows that the song „Happy Birthday“ is in the public domain, and not, as Warner Music‘s Warner/Chappell claims, still covered by a copyright that it holds (and ruthlessly enforces). The evidence was in the form of a 1922 songbook that published the music and lyrics to Happy Birthday, noting that it was via „special permission through courtesy of the Clayton F Summy Co.“ The Summy company is who registered the copyright in 1935, and which Warner eventually bought. Warner has long argued that there was no pre-1935 publication.