Editing We Shall Overcome (section)

==Copyright status==
The copyright status of "We Shall Overcome" was disputed in the late 2010s. A [[copyright registration]] was made for the song in 1960, which is credited as an [[Derivative work|arrangement]] by Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton, and Pete Seeger, of a work entitled "I'll Overcome", with no known original author.<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/> Horton's heirs, Carawan, Hamilton, and Seeger share the artists' half of the rights, and The Richmond Organization (TRO), which includes Ludlow Music, Essex, Folkways Music, and Hollis Music, holds the publishers' rights, to 50% of the royalty earnings. Seeger explained that he registered the copyright under the advice of TRO, who showed concern that someone else could register it. "At that time we didn't know Lucille Simmons' name", Seeger said.<ref>Seeger, 1993, p. 33</ref> Their royalties go to the "We Shall Overcome" Fund, administered by Highlander under the trusteeship of the "writers". Such funds are purportedly used to give small grants for cultural expression involving African Americans organizing in the U.S. South.<ref>''Highlander Reports'', 2004, p. 3.</ref>

In April 2016, a lawsuit was filed against TRO and Ludlow by the We Shall Overcome Foundation (WSOF), a group led by producer [[Isaias Gamboa (music producer)|Isaias Gamboa]] that was denied permission to use the song in a documentary on its history. The suit alleged that the TRO-Ludlow copyright claims were invalid because the copyright had not been renewed as required by [[United States copyright law]] at the time, and that the copyright of the 1948 ''People's Songs'' publication containing "We Will Overcome" had therefore expired in 1976. Additionally, it was argued that the registered copyrights only covered specific arrangements of the tune and "obscure alternate verses", that the registered works "did not contain original works of authorship, except to the extent of the arrangements themselves", and that no record of a work entitled "I'll Overcome" existed in the database of the [[United States Copyright Office]]. The WSOF was working on a documentary about the song and its history, and were denied permission to use the song by TRO-Ludlow. The suit sought to have the copyright status of the song clarified, and the return of all royalties collected by the companies from its usage.<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns">{{cite web |last1=Graham |first1=David A. |title=Who Owns 'We Shall Overcome'? |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/we-shall-overcome-lawsuit/478068/ |website=The Atlantic |date=14 April 2016 |access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref>

The suit acknowledged that Seeger himself had not claimed to be an author of the song, stating of the song in his autobiography, "No one is certain who changed 'will' to 'shall.' It could have been me with my [[Harvard University|Harvard]] education. But Septima Clarke, a Charleston schoolteacher (who was director of education at Highlander and after the civil rights movement was elected year after year to the Charleston, S.C. Board of Education) always preferred 'shall.' It sings better." He also reaffirmed that the decision to copyright the song was a defensive measure, with his publisher apparently warning him that "if you don't copyright this now, some Hollywood types will have a version out next year like 'Come on Baby, We shall overcome tonight{{'"}}. Furthermore, the liner notes of Seeger's compilation album ''If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle'' contained a summary on the purported history of the song, stating that "We Shall Overcome" was "probably adapted from the 19th-century hymn, 'I'll Be All Right{{'"}}, and that "I'll Overcome Some Day" was a "possible source" and may have originally been adapted from "I'll Be All Right".<ref name="suit-pdf">{{cite web |title=We Shall Overcome Foundation, C.A. No. on behalf of itself and all others similarly situated v. The Richmond Organization, Inc. (TRO Inc.) and Ludlow Music, Inc. |publisher=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|S.D.N.Y.]] |url= https://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/We.shall_.overcome.complaint.pdf|access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref> 

Gamboa had shown interest in investigating the origins of "We Shall Overcome";<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/> in a book entitled ''[[We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue]]'', he notably disputed the song's claimed origins and copyright registration with an alternate theory, suggesting that "We Shall Overcome" was actually derived from "If My Jesus Wills", a hymn by [[Louise Shropshire]] that had been composed in the 1930s and had its copyright registered in 1954.<ref name="cincicom-belongstocincy">{{cite web |title='We Shall Overcome' belongs to Cincinnati |url= http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/02/01/shall-overcome-belongs-cincinnati/22593805/ |website=[[Cincinnati Enquirer]] |publisher=Gannett Company |access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last2=Henry |first1=Isaias |last1=Gamboa |first2=JoAnne F. |last3=Owen |first3=Audrey |title=We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue |date=2012 |publisher=Amapola |location=Beverly Hills, California |isbn=978-0615475288}}</ref> The WSOF lawsuit did not invoke this theory, focusing instead on the original belief that the song stemmed from "We Will Overcome".<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/><ref name="suit-pdf"/> The lawyer backing Gamboa's suit, Mark C. Rifkin, was previously involved in a case that invalidated copyright claims over the song "[[Happy Birthday to You]]".<ref name="billboard-weshalllawsuit">{{cite magazine |title='Happy Birthday' Legal Team Turns Attention to 'We Shall Overcome' |url= http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7332976/we-shall-overcome-public-domain-lawsuit-copyright |magazine=Billboard |date= 12 April 2016 |access-date=April 15, 2016}}</ref>

On September 8, 2017, Judge [[Denise Cote]] of the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that there were insufficient differences between the first verse of the "We Shall Overcome" lyrics registered by TRO-Ludlow, and the "We Will Overcome" lyrics from ''People's Songs'' (specifically, the aforementioned replacement of "will" with "shall", and changing "down in my heart" to "deep in my heart") for it to qualify as a [[threshold of originality|distinct]] derivative work eligible for its own copyright.<ref name="Ars Technica">{{Cite news |date=September 11, 2017 |title=Judge throws out 57-year-old copyright on 'We Shall Overcome' |language=en-us |work=Ars Technica |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/the-most-famous-civil-rights-song-we-shall-overcome-is-no-longer-copyrighted/ |access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/09/11/550209220/federal-judge-rules-first-verse-of-we-shall-overcome-public-domain|title=Federal Judge Rules First Verse Of 'We Shall Overcome' Public Domain|last=Karr|first=Rick|date=September 11, 2017|website=Npr.org|access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref>

On January 26, 2018, TRO-Ludlow agreed to a final settlement, under which it would no longer claim copyright over the melody or lyrics to "We Shall Overcome".<ref>As published in copyright registration numbers EU 645288 (27 October 1960) and EP 179877 (7 October 1963).</ref> In addition, TRO-Ludlow agreed that the melody and lyrics were thereafter dedicated to the public domain.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gardner|first1=Eriq|title=Song Publisher Agrees 'We Shall Overcome' Is in Public Domain in Legal Settlement|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/song-publisher-agrees-we-overcome-public-domain-legal-settlement-1078906|access-date=26 January 2018|work=Hollywood Reporter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whafh.com/case/wolf-haldenstein-frees-copyright-shall-overcome-uss-powerful-song|title=Wolf Haldenstein Frees the Copyright to we Shall Overcome, the US's Most Powerful Song|access-date=3 February 2018|website=Whafh.com|archive-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922085951/http://www.whafh.com/case/wolf-haldenstein-frees-copyright-shall-overcome-uss-powerful-song|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whafh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wso-stipulation-and-order-filed.pdf |title=Stipulation and Order of Dismissal With Prejudice|website=Whafh.com|access-date=March 14, 2022}}</ref>