Copyright law is, of course, an ass - intended to incentivise and protect the creation of new ideas, it now merely disincentivises the creation of new ideas by protecting the old ones.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the distortion of the cultural record of the early C21st fostered by the copyright to "happy birthday". In real life, birthdays are accompanied by the singing of happy birthday. In film, they are not - the rights are expensive so other songs are substituted.
Does this distortion of the cultural record achieve anything? Of course not. No one makes any money from it. It just taunts future historians with the claim that no-one ever sang "happy birthday". But they did. We do. I was there.
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