Oops, posted, while I was in preview. Still needed the article attribution info.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/10674899/Happy-90th-birthday-Happy-Birthday.html
The Telegraph
By Alice Vincent
04 Mar 2014
Eternal/retroactive copyrights and consolidation PING!
This is what really ticks me off about the “musicians, artists & poets” crowd. They can demand millions for something which was not even theirs to begin with, for 70 years and more.
Yet the inventor who gives us all very useful things has a mere 18 years to make a buck while scores of lawyers are trying to design around his patent.
Would it not be great if the heirs of Ermal Fraze, who invented the pop top can, could still collect 1/10th of a cent for each one produced these days?