(Hypebot<\/a>) — The 1923 song \u201cYes! We Have No Bananas\u201d slipped into the public domain \u2013 or so we thought. Shortly after a video featuring the song was posted on YouTube, Universal Music stepped up to claim ownership.<\/p>\n

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Op-ed\u00a0by\u00a0<\/em>Mike Masnick<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>Techdirt<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

As you\u2019re probably aware, on January 1st of this year, we actually had a public domain day in the US\u00a0for the first time in over two decades<\/em>. Prior to that Congress (with the help of Hollywood lobbyists) had worked to continually extend copyright law whenever new works were due to go into the public domain. These extensions still seem to violate the spirit of the copyright clause in the Constitution, given that it is granting Congress permission to create such monopolies\u00a0only so much as<\/em>\u00a0those monopoly rights \u201cpromote the progress.\u201d Any reasonable interpretation of that clause means that copyright law should be allowed in cases where it creates the incentive to create. But it\u2019s difficult to see how extending copyright law decades after the work has been created does anything to incentivize that work in the first place.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, this year, Hollywood finally realized that it was probably too much to ask to get another copyright term extension and finally let works from 1923 enter the public domain. One of the\u00a0signature works<\/a>\u00a0of the public domain class of 1923 was the song\u00a0Yes! We Have No Bananas<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by composers Irving Cohn and Frank Silver. As of January 1st, anyone was free to make use of that song. Indeed, in our own\u00a0Public Domain Game Jam<\/a>\u00a0competition, we actually had\u00a0not one<\/a>, but\u00a0two separate<\/a>\u00a0game entries based on \u201cYes! We Have No Bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, of course, even if Hollywood wasn\u2019t going to push for term extension, that doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t do what it always does, and pull other levers. Glenn Fleishman had posted a video of the song to YouTube in celebration of it entering the public domain earlier this year. He even titled it\u00a0\u201cYes! We Have No Bananas, now in the public domain.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0The video is of him and friends\/family singing it at a New Year\u2019s Eve Party:<\/p>\n