Ramblings and webcomics from LeEMS
Hooray! This was the very case that I wanted to but didn’t mention in my itty bitty post on the hokey cokey.
Yesterday, the district court in Marya v. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. invalidated one of the most famous, longest lasting, and controversial rights claims in music: Warner/Chappell’s ownership of the copyright in the universally known song Happy Birthday
Source: Public Knowledge Celebrates Court Decision in “Happy Birthday” Case – Public Knowledge
While watching a crazy amount of British television programming I started wondering on the differences between the U.S.’s Hokey pokey and the U.K.’s Hokey cokey. It turns out its variations and history is much more interesting than I thought (Wikipedia). Some form of hokey pokey has been traced to the 17th century and it may have been thought up as a way to make fun of Catholic priests performing the tradition Latin mass. It has variations in Australia, the Philippines and Denmark. The modern U.K. version was printed in 1942, and may have been recorded around that time. The U.S. version was also recorded in the late 40s.
Rather sensibly, the U.K. considers the hokey cokey a traditional song, meaning anyone can make use of it and it is not protected by copyright. Insensibly, Sony holds the copyrights over the hokey pokey.
