May 28, 2005
HappY Birthday to You: Final Chapter
I have been around the world asking about the term of copyrights, reviewing various laws in various countries:
According to Circular 15t, US Copyright Office
Renewed Copyrights Automatically Extended to Maximum of 95 Years
Under the statute, copyrights that had already been renewed and were in their second term at any time between December 31, 1976, and December 31, 1977, inclusive, were automatically extended in duration. The total length of these copyrights is now 95 years from the end of the year in which they were originally secured.
So in the United States
2030 for the lyrics (if they really own them)
music: copyrights expired in Jan. 1, 1950
But in the rest of the world, notably the EU countries, and other Berne signatores, the rule of law is author's life + 70 years. So in Europe, the copyright on both the music and lyrics might expire in 2016, but in Germany and the UK, the longer term of 2030 might be upheld. ??? International Copyright law? I have nothing but questions.
Remember that Internet is a worldwide usage, so IF the 1935 Happy Birthday to You musical composition is really, really owned by Warner-Chappell, the copyright won't expire until 2030... that is unless the term gets another extension.
One last question remains; I have a copy of a 1912 publication that features "Happy Birthday to You" which was not published by Clayton F. Summy and was not authorized by the Hill sisters (and was not published by Robert H. Coleman either). This very well may have been an infringement on the lyrics of "Good Morning to All" but unless the Hill sisters fixed the "Happy Birthday to You" variation of their song in a tangible form prior to 1912, the author's right to first publication would not apply. How would they get ownership of a derivative work that they did not fix in tangible form?
Also there are citations of earlier publications, and copyrights, that predated the Hill sister's 1893 "Song Stories for the Kindergarten". Is there proof out there that this song, popluarly known as the Happy birthday song, is nothing itself but a derivative work?
Curious minds want to know!
Posted by photocartoonist at 11:28 PM | Comments (4)
May 25, 2005
Happy Birthday to You
This is NOT legal advice
Does anybody really OWN these words?
Did Mildred and Patty Hill know back in 1893 that they were about to create a legend? How could they even guess that in 2005 a major music publishing company, Warner-Chappell would still claim ownership to their song! And who would have foreseen the value of the worldwide rights with the invention of the e-card?
Yes, Warner-Chappell claims to own the rights to the "Good Morning to All" musical compostion, first registered with the US copyright office in 1893, with that registration updated in 1896. Yes, this song became known as the Happy Birthday song, but did the Hill sisters pen these lyrics?
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear (name)
Happy birthday to you
There is no evidence, even Patty Smith Hill's testimony in the infamous 1934 court case, that they wrote those words. In fact there is evidence that even their lyrics to "Good Morning to All" were a derivative of:
Happy Greeting to All
Happy Greeting to All
Happy Greeting Happy Greeting
Happy Greeting to All (©1858)
It is true that the Clayton Summy company registered a piece of sheet music in 1935 under the title "Happy Birthday to You" which used the same music as "Good Morning to You" with the addition of one note, because Happy is two syllables and Good, well is only one.
Clayton Summy is the same music publishing company who published Mildred and Patty's little ditty back in 1893, and again in a larger, illustrated volume in 1896. I claim that no one owns the words "Happy Birthday to You" but Warner-Chappell claims that THEY do own these words, as lyrics, because of this 1935 copyright registration document.
The 1935 registration document does not substantiate this claim. It is a registration of a derivative work (the arrangement) and a work-for-hire by another composer, Preston Ware Orem (the music). The US Office of Copyright has this document and it is a matter of public record.
The Library of Congress does not have the deposit document that went with this registration but James Fuld (author of The Book of World-Famous Songs) does have an early edition of this sheet music, dated 1935, which has No Attribution for the author of the lyrics, and Mildred Hill attributed as the author of the music and this music was arranged by Preston Ware Orem, titled "Happy Birthday to You" and features the Happy Birthday to you lyrics.
The Clayton Summy company was sold and became Summy-Birchard, which was bought by Warner-Chappell. Buying copyrights is a lucrative business in the music industry. In the 18 years I have been in the greeting card business I have never been told that anyone owns those words. Quite to the contrary, it is widely believed that no one owns the simple phrases, Happy Birthday, I love you, Happy Valentines Day, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to you; you get the point. Copyright law does not cover "names, short phrases, titles". That is a trademark issue and another story. Strangely, "Happy Birthday" was allegedly trademarked by a Chinese company last year for use on toys. In my opinion this is a dubious trademark at best. And even that does not effect the greeting card business.
It's All About Context and Jursidiction
Yes it is true that the Happy Birthday music is in the public domain in the United States, but it gets tricky with the lyrics. Internet usage is by definition worldwide and intellectual property laws in other countries have been based on author's life + for more years than this song, and its predecessors has been around. The question is how would a foreign jurisdiction measure the term of this copyright.
James Fuld as well as other musicologists believe there are even earlier publications disputing this claim of a current copyright. But the legal position says that every publication without authorization is tainted and possibly nullifies the validity of the publication of the lyrics. Is it ture? Is it possible that the Summy registration in 1935 is the only authorized publication that can be found in the world that combines the music with the lyrics that we all know as the Happy Birthday song?
Posted by photocartoonist at 3:38 PM | Comments (6)
May 22, 2005
Interview with The Photocartoonist
photo by Thomas Hudson Reeve ©Kat Caverly Enterprises
Imagine you are walking down the street. There is nothing special about you today.. You are waiting for the bus, running out for a jug of milk, taking your dog for a walk, doing ordinary things on an ordinary day...
A woman rushes towards you, with a huge grin & a camera, waving a piece of paper & asks you to sign a release. She then proceeds to ask you to make a silly face, but not just any silly face: ’Your favorite silly face that you had when you were 11 years old.’
What do you do?
Well, if you are like most of the people that Kat Caverly, the Photocartoonist, meets, you sign & pose baby!
Completely disarming, thoroughly engaging, she romances the silly out of you. Yes, romances. Her joy is contagious, her smile continuous as she poses you this way & that, complimenting you on your ability, your gift, for making people laugh. There you are, in public, exposing your goofy self to a stranger, with no money changing hands. Then, she leaves.
Do you feel dirty afterwards? Ashamed? Embarrassed? Do you experience the same feelings as after a one-night-stand? Is it worse as you were ’doing it’ in broad daylight on a public street -- in front of a camera no less?!
Most of Kat’s subjects don’t. In fact, most love seeing photographs of themselves playing on a greeting card! That is, until some ‘friend’ rushes over, card in hand, to tell them they should complain. Suddenly the subject is no longer seeing their ability to make others smile as a gift, and instead feels they are owed something for being the joke. ‘Someone else thinks they are an asshole, and they stop feeling the joy’ says Kat. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often. "For every one who make noise, 10 more love it."
But what does happen when these few unhappy people come forward? Caverly turns them over to her attorney . (Remember, she ran over with that piece of paper for you to sign?) She always gets an intellectual property release ‘in perpetuity’ signed, so legally there is no problem.
But it still bothers Caverly. She is sensitive to the criticism, but it is clear from how she talks that she is not just worried about having her work seen in a negative light. She is hurt that someone who had had so much fun & was enjoying their own ability to be foolish, now just feels like a fool.
"There have been many days when I decided I would quit. Just stop. But as I turned around, there was this perfect opportunity, and I dashed over to start it all again." After all, she is Kat Caverly, Photocartoonist. This is not only what ‘she does‘ but her passion.
But what is a Photocartoonist?
"I make fun of people" is the simple answer Caverly gives to most people. It is really too simple an answer. However, if you prompt Caverly for a little more, she will give a great giggle & a lot more information. Delighted at the chance to talk more about her work, and being as gregarious as they come, she gives me more information than I can jot down.
Basically, the name ’photocartoonist’ was given to her as her photography sort of defies traditional categorization. When viewing her portfolio, ad agencies stated her work was not for advertising, to try magazines. Magazines felt it not editorial, but photo-journalism. The newspapers saw her work as commercial... And so it went. In order to make the most of the uniqueness of her photos, she now uses the coined ‘photocartoonist’ to brand her work.
How did her photographs come to be so unique?
As a child she was continually photographed by her amateur photographer Father. She names him as her early inspiration. She also fondly remembers her Grandfather’s gift of gab -- ‘He could have a joyous conversation with a rock!‘ As she was often in Grandfather‘s tow, this is surely where she learned how to disarm her subjects with her gush of warm, infectious conversation!
Caverly gives her background in behavioral psychology credit for creating what she does. "Originally I studied to understand what makes people tick, and to control them. Now my work is an exploration in human good nature."
But, if behavioral psychology is behind ‘what she sees,’ then her 27 years experience working with chemical/optical photography must be credited with ‘how she gets it.’
Specifically noteworthy:
* Eight years as an apprentice in commercial & fashion photography taught her how to completely pose & contrive a photograph. (This is also where she first began to build her humor skills to loosen up anxious models/actors with her ‘silly face’ gambit.)
* One year working in a color lab printing film gave her an eye for how a snap-shot looks. So even though her photos are completely set-up, they have the feel of a snap-shot.
Her subjects:
"I can stand on any street corner in mid-town Manhattan and have 20 people come to me" says Kat. She may start out the day with a theme, for example the ’Pick Your Nose’ series, but sometimes, she just sees something, and seizes the opportunity.
She prefers working with folks on the street,. The spontaneous ‘meet on the street’ is more conducive to play than an appointment to show up at a studio. She works with children & animals, but finds it much more difficult as communication is so crucial to setting up the shot.
However, one of her favorite photos is of Buster, her cat. Perhaps it was the glory in finally getting a great shot. After Buster destroyed the set by spilling bubbles, thrashing with decorations & scratching her husband’s arms as he tried to hold Buster in place, Buster finally turned & looked right at Kat. It truly is a photo that could not have been achieved with Kat setting it up -- this creativity was all Buster. Or maybe, she loves the photograph because she loves telling the story... Did I mention, she loves to talk?
Kat also does self-portraits. ‘I am my favorite subject!’ she coos, but clarifies that this comment comes from her alter-ego, ‘Shirley.’ (Shirley’s pics are my favorites too!) Now her husband, Thomas Hudson Reeve, does most of the photos of her.
"The ability to make a fool of yourself in front of others releases you" says Caverly.
And I can’t think of a more fitting way to finish the interview.
An Article by Deanna Dahlsad
reprinted with permission
Posted by photocartoonist at 8:06 PM | Comments (4)
May 19, 2005
Portrait of the Artist
©photo by Kat Caverly, Self Portrait 1978
The most amazing thing about being a photographer is how complete the memories are when I look at my photographs. I remember every little thing, but particularly the feelings I had while I was making the photographs.
I have been doing self-portraits since I became a professional photographer and this is one of my favorites. Taken with daylight E4 transparency film in tungsten light, the yellow cast is natural. Seeing these portraits today made me yearn for film for the first time in many years.
©photo by Kat Caverly, Blue Boy 1976
I was fascinated by color infrared film and used it in a series of landscape photography. The result was a blue cast to the skin in daylight and an over all mystery to the portrait. Photographing people did not seem to come natural to me and for a few years I stuck to photographing things, places. But this session really spoke to me and from the time of this portrait I began an apprenticeship as a fashion photographer.
©photo by Kat Caverly, Silence a Dream 1977
I often saw models in unusual settings, the juxtaposition of beauty and decay, the magic of the interaction. I started to photograph ordinary people in the same manner as the fashion models. After all models were real people too.
I went on to specialize in Beauty photography from 1978-1980 and when I arrived in new York City in 1981 I took my camera to the streets. I knew my vision would be best expressed in the faces of everyday people in everyday situations. But I always used what I learned from my work in fashion and beauty to bring out the best in all of my subjects.
Posted by photocartoonist at 11:10 PM
Happy Birthday from The Borscht Belt
As if getting older wasn't bad enough, here's a bad comic to make things even worse. If you didn't laugh, you'd only cry.
Posted by photocartoonist at 1:40 AM
May 17, 2005
The upbeat Beat
Click on the image above to see the movie [20Mb]
Live from the Redroom in New York City
Drop dead cool; drop dead funny! Shirley Kenosha introduced her character, the upbeat Beat, to the poetry circuit in New York City, just to see if they would GET that beat poetry has the same rhythm as stand-up comedy. It is so cool. The audiences totally get that they need to snap their fingers in appreciation and they quickly realized that they were allowed to laugh too.
Posted by photocartoonist at 3:00 PM
May 16, 2005
My Fruits
Celebrity endorsements, especially from dead celebs are my favorites! I know that Carmen would have loved my characters, and would have had some fabulous advice for my newest Do, dreadlocks!
Posted by photocartoonist at 10:39 AM
May 12, 2005
My First Vlog
Back in 1998 I envisioned the Internet as THE distribution medium of choice for my movies, but the medium just wasn't ready yet. By 2001 fledgling companies that had the same idea (and more money) as me were going out of business because Broadband just could not be adopted fast enough. But it still was an idea whose time was coming.
Now I am reading about video search on Yahoo! and Google and I am once again getting very very excited about the possiblities. But I still don't have a handle on the technology yet, though I know it is already in play and being used very successfully in RSS feeds.
So I added Enclosures to Movable Type and now I am testing it out. So here goes:
As is usual, I am flying by the seat of my pants and I am boldly going where I have never been before...and not knowing what I am doing has never stopped me before!
Posted by photocartoonist at 9:06 PM
May 8, 2005
No Evil Productions
We here at No Evil Productions are dedicated to "Bringing JOY into People's Lives"! We are a team of greeting card designers, comics, screenwiters, playwrights, directors, photographers, animators, CG artists, composers, musicians, illustrators, producers and bon vivantes.
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:20 AM
May 5, 2005
The Birthday Zone: Episode 1
Flight X19
Just when you thought it was safe to have another birthday, straight from the zany minds over at No Evil Productions comes a new twist on the sci-fi that is growing older. Writer/director Thomas Hudson Reeve takes on a journey that is surprising as it is funny. Composer Chris Leap reinvents the 1960's genre that would have made Rod Serling smile.
This is just the first in a series promised by producer Kat Caverly who proposed this concept one morning after she didn't get enough sleep. "If dreams were good enough inspiration for the Twilight Zone, they are good enough for us dreamteamsters", claims Ms. Caverly.
Animation: Leslie Rogers, No Evil Productions
Voices: TH Reeve and Denny Bess, No Evil Productions
You've just crossed over into...The Birthday Zone!
Posted by photocartoonist at 11:31 PM