News is breaking that the parties have settled in the Happy Birthday copyright case. The trial scheduled to begin December 15, 2015 has been canceled, according to a ruling filed in the case.

One of the factors that was to have been addressed in the trial would have been the issue of damages, possibly going all the way back to 1949.

Detail of the settlement have not yet been released, so at this point, we have no idea what this means (if anything) to the public at large as far as usage rights and the song’s public domain status.

More to come….