{"id":11705,"date":"2023-04-25T13:40:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T17:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/?p=11705"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:04:52","slug":"for-you-and-me-or-private-property-evaluating-the-copyright-claim-in-woody-guthries-this-land-is-your-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/2023\/04\/25\/for-you-and-me-or-private-property-evaluating-the-copyright-claim-in-woody-guthries-this-land-is-your-land\/","title":{"rendered":"[Archived Post] For You and Me or Private Property?: Evaluating the Copyright Claim in Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jason Lee Guthrie<\/em><\/p>\n

For the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy blog, in fulfillment of obligations for the Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Al Aumuller, Woody Guthrie, half-length portrait, facing slightly left, holding guitar 1943<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In early 1940, Woody Guthrie was on the road to New York City, and he was tired. Tired of traveling. Tired of the cold. Tired of having to hobo and hitchhike his way across America (again). He nearly froze to death in a Pennsylvania snowstorm along the way. He eventually made it to New York, though, alive but exhausted.<\/p>\n

He was also tired of hearing Kate Smith\u2019s patriotic anthem \u201cGod Bless America\u201d on the radio. It had been an instant hit since its debut more than a year prior, but its ubiquity bothered Guthrie as did its use of religious imagery to inspire nationalist feeling. He was so tired of hearing it that when he finally got to New York he wrote his own song in response. Entitled \u201cGod Blessed America,\u201d the song\u2019s first three verses were an artistic rendering of his recent travels across \u201cgolden valleys\u201d and \u201cdiamond deserts.\u201d The fourth verse shifted somewhat in tone, though, and perhaps revealed something about Guthrie\u2019s philosophical outlook:<\/p>\n

Was a big high wall there \/ That tried to stop me
\nA sign was painted \/ Said: Private Property
\nBut on the back side \/ It didn\u2019t say nothing
\nGod blessed America for me<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Land\u201d in Court<\/strong><\/p>\n

This song would eventually replace the line \u201cGod blessed America for me\u201d with \u201cThis land was made for you and me\u201d and change its title to \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d The song\u2019s development has been discussed in previous scholarship.[1]<\/a> Here, I\u2019ll focus on revisions only insofar as they relate to its copyright claim. The validity of this claim has received significant scholarly attention in recent years and even spilled over into public discourse as the copyright has been challenged in court. Research that I conducted while completing a Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship revealed important details that can reframe scholarly discourse about the copyright in \u201cThis Land,\u201d and may inform legal arguments if it is challenged again.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

As of this writing, the most recent litigation occurred in 2016 when the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz filed a complaint on behalf of the band Satorii against The Richmond Organization (TRO), current publishers of \u201cThis Land\u201d and other Guthrie works.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 In 2015, the same firm successfully litigated a high profile case against Warner\/Chappell Music, Inc. that established \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d in the public domain.[4]<\/a> Buoyed by this success, the firm hoped to similarly invalidate the copyright claim in both \u201cThis Land\u201d and the civil rights anthem \u201cWe Shall Overcome.\u201d[5]<\/a> While the cases involving \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d and \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d were relatively clear-cut, the facts of the copyright claim in \u201cThis Land\u201d are more complicated and warrant an in-depth look.<\/p>\n

Writing \u2013 and Protecting \u2013 \u201cThis Land\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having a song undergo several rounds of revision was a normal part of Guthrie\u2019s creative process. Also common to Guthrie\u2019s process was the practice of pairing original lyrics with an established melody.[6]<\/a> \u201cThis Land\u201d is an example of this practice as the melody line and chord progression are based on an old Carter Family song entitled \u201cLittle Darling, Pal of Mine,\u201d which itself was based on a gospel hymn entitled \u201cOh My Loving Brother.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

The original lyric sheet for \u201cThis Land\u201d evidences its evolution as lines from the first draft are crossed out and replaced with new ones.[8]<\/a> The earliest known recording of the song was made in the mid-1940s with producer Moe Asch, and by that time the references to \u201cGod Bless America\u201d had been dropped.[9]<\/a> It was recorded again in the late 1940s and a third time in 1951.[10]<\/a> As initiates into the byzantine world of music copyright will know, however, copyright in these specific sound recordings is distinct from a copyright in the words and music of the song itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Land\u201d debuted on the radio in the mid 1940s as merely one song in Guthrie\u2019s vast repertoire. One of the ways that musical acts on the radio generated income at this time was to sell songbooks to listeners that contained the sheet music for tunes they heard on the air.[11]<\/a> Guthrie had been creating such songbooks for years by this point, and in 1945 he created one that included \u201cThis Land\u201d along with other titles. Mimeographed from a handmade manuscript and advertised at a selling price of 25 cents, this document included an explicit copyright claim on both its cover and first page.[12]<\/a> Such a notice met the basic requirements for claiming copyright at the time. Moreover, Guthrie was generally aware of these requirements and had made efforts to comply with them before.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Card Catalog Entry for Woody Guthrie, “This Land is Your Land,” March 30, 1956<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet, \u201cThis Land\u201d was not officially registered with the Copyright Office until 1956. By this time, Guthrie was profoundly debilitated by Huntington\u2019s Disease. Management of his affairs was handled by his second wife, Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, and her designees. It is possible that when they submitted the application for copyright registration they were unaware of the songbook\u2019s existence. In the mid-1950s, \u201cThis Land\u201d was just beginning to achieve the popular recognition it would eventually enjoy, and a hastily drawn songbook he had made a decade prior would likely not even register on their radar as they worked to untangle the myriad contracts and assignments of rights Guthrie had signed since he arrive in New York.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

The question of the copyright claim\u2019s legitimacy hangs on a comparative evaluation of the 1945 manuscript and the 1956 registration. Records in the archives of the Woody Guthrie Center demonstrate that the successive entities who managed the copyright, including TRO, believed the 1956 registration to be valid.[15]<\/a> Yet, when the copyright was challenged in 2004, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) discovered the 1945 manuscript and positioned it as evidence of \u201cfirst publication.\u201d[16]<\/a> That case, like the one in 2016, eventually settled without ruling on the validity of the copyright claim, but the question of first publication will be important if suit is filed again in the future. TRO correctly filed for an extension of the 1956 registration in the twenty eighth year timeframe required at the time (i.e. pre-1976 Copyright Act). If the copyright clock legally began with the publication of the 1945 manuscript, however, the extension window was missed and the song would have fallen into the public domain twenty eight years later in 1973.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ultimately, if a ruling is made, it will come down to a judge\u2019s decision on whether the 1945 manuscript should count as first publication. When I began this research, I had hoped to produce a definitive recommendation similar to what Robert Brauneis was able to do with his work on \u201cHappy Birthday.\u201d[17]<\/a> While I am not able to say definitively whether or not the copyright claim in \u201cThis Land\u201d is valid, I do believe the case for its validity is stronger than many previous commentators have suggested.<\/p>\n

It does not take a professional musicologist to note several differences in the sheet music from 1945 and 1956. They are in different keys and different time signatures. The melodies notated are both recognizable as \u201cThis Land,\u201d but they have differences that even an untrained ear can easily distinguish. There are differences in the lyrics as well. For example, the 1945 manuscript has \u201cCanadian Mountain\u201d in place of the more familiar \u201cRedwood Forest\u201d in the first verse, and that difference is just one of many. Even the title on the 1945 manuscript is simply \u201cThis Land\u201d rather than the full \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d These discrepancies suggest a strong case that the manuscript accompanying the 1956 registration can reasonably be considered an updated arrangement or version deserving of its own unique copyright. If a judge were to rule the 1956 registration valid, then the current copyright claim would stand as legitimate.<\/p>\n

The stakes of \u201cThis Land\u201d’s copyright legitimacy are not insignificant. Nora Guthrie, Woody\u2019s daughter and President of Woody Guthrie Publications, has stated explicitly why the claim is still asserted: \u201cOur control of this song has nothing to do with financial gain. . . . It has to do with protecting it from Donald Trump, protecting it from the Ku Klux Klan, protecting it from all the evil forces out there.\u201d[18]<\/a> In my research, I did not find any scholarship that advocated for \u201cThis Land\u201d to become public domain that also seriously addressed the ramifications of that outcome. The copyright claim may be disputed, but it is the only thing currently keeping the song from being appropriated into any number of commercial or political purposes that would have been anathema to Guthrie. It would be ideal, perhaps, if there were a mechanism other than copyright to restrict harmful use of \u201cThis Land,\u201d but absent such a mechanism copyright is, in this case, the only thing helping to prevent<\/em> appropriation and commodification.<\/p>\n

\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Most biographies of Guthrie have a section that covers the composition of \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d See Robert Santelli, This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song<\/em> (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2012) for an accurate yet accessible narrative. See John Shaw, \u201cThe Textual History of \u2018This Land Is Your Land\u201d in This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American<\/em> Anthems<\/em> (New York: PublicAffairs, 2013), 211-218 for a more detailed analysis.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jason Lee Guthrie, \u201cThis Copyright Kills Fascists: Debunking the Mythology Surrounding Woody Guthrie, \u2018This Land is Your Land,\u2019 and the Public Domain,\u201d Information & Culture<\/em> 58, no. 1 (2023): 17-38.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Plaintiff\u2019s Complaint, ECF No. 6, Saint-Amour et al v. The Richmond Organization, Inc. (TRO Inc.), June 15, 2016, (S.D.N.Y. 2016) (No. 16 Civ. 4464).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Christine Mai-Duc, \u201cAll the \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 song copyright claims are invalid, federal judge rules,\u201d Los Angeles Times<\/em>, September 22, 2015, https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-happy-birthday-song-lawsuit-decision-20150922-story.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Niraj Chokshi, \u201cWho Owns the Copyright to \u2018This Land Is Your Land\u2019? It May Be You and Me,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, June 17, 2016, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/06\/18\/business\/media\/this-guthrie-song-is-your-song-a-lawsuit-claims.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> See, for example, Alonzo M. Zilch\u2019s own Collection of Original Songs and Ballads (Songbook), April 1935, Item 87, Woody Guthrie Notebooks (Diaries), Woody Guthrie Center Archives, Tulsa, Oklahoma (hereafter WGC), Guthrie\u2019s earliest known songbook, which included the quote: \u201cAt times I cannot decide on a tune to use with my words for a song. Woe is me! I am then forced to use some good old, family style tune that hath already gained a reputation as being liked by the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ed Cray, Ramblin\u2019 Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie<\/em> (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004), 165-166.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/This-Land-v1.jpg?w=1280<\/a><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Woody Guthrie, \u201cThis Land Is Your Land (Alternate Version),\u201d c. mid-1940s, on Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection<\/em>, Smithsonian Folkways, 2012.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> See Woody Guthrie, \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d, c. late-1940s, on This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1<\/em>, Smithsonian Folkways, 1997; and Woody Guthrie, \u201cThis Land Is Your Land,\u201d 1951, on This Land Is My Land: American Work Songs: Songs to Grow On, Vol. 3<\/em>, Smithsonian Folkways Archival, 2007.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Peter La Chapelle, I\u2019d Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music<\/em> (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019), 165-166.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> \u201c\u2018Ten Songs of Woody Guthrie\u2019 1945 Pamphlet,\u201d Electronic Frontier Foundation, June 29, 2007, https:\/\/www.eff.org\/document\/ten-songs-woody-guthrie-1945-pamphlet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> See, for example, Copyright Office to Woody Guthrie, September 22, 1937, Series 4, Box 6, Folder 3, Maxine Crissman \u201cWoody and Lefty Lou\u201d Radio Show Collection, WGC; and Copyright Office to Woody Guthrie, n.d., Series 4, Box 6, Folder 4, Maxine Crissman \u201cWoody and Lefty Lou\u201d Radio Show Collection, WGC.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Joe Klein, Woody Guthrie: A Life<\/em>, 2nd<\/sup> ed. (New York: Random House, 1999), 430-432.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> See, for example, Harold Leventhal to Woody Guthrie, August 27, 1956, Series 2, Box 2, Folder 13, Woody Guthrie\u2019s Correspondence Collection, WGC; Harold Leventhal to Cisco Houston, November 25, 1958, Series 3, Box 1, Folder 10, Harold Leventhal Collection, WGC; Al Brackman to Harold Leventhal, January 13, 1959, Series 1, Box 1, Folder 16, Harold Leventhal Collection, WGC; Jay Mark to Harold Leventhal, December 7, 1959, Series 3, Box 1, Folder 8, Harold Leventhal Collection, WGC; Al Brackman to Harold Leventhal, December 22, 1959, Series 1, Box 1, Folder 16, Harold Leventhal Collection, WGC; and Howard S. Richmond to Harold Leventhal, December 28, 1959, Series 3, Box 1, Folder 8, Harold Leventhal Collection, WGC.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Fred von Lohmann, \u201cThis Song Belongs to you and Me,\u201d Electronic Frontier Foundation, August 24, 2004, https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2004\/08\/song-belongs-you-and-me<\/a>; and Parker Higgins, \u201cThis Song (Still) Belongs to You and Me,\u201d Electronic Frontier Foundation, February 2, 2015, https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2015\/02\/song-still-belongs-you-and-me<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Robert Brauneis, \u201cCopyright and the World\u2019s Most Popular Song,\u201d Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A <\/em>56, no. 2\u20133 (Winter-Spring 2009): 335\u2013426.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Ben Sisario, \u201cA Fight to Make \u2018We Shall Overcome\u2019 and \u2018This Land is Your Land\u2019 Copyright Free,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, July 12, 2016, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/07\/13\/business\/media\/happy-birthday-is-free-at-last-how-about-we-shall-overcome.html<\/a>. For an interesting account of the relationship between Woody Guthrie and Donald Trump\u2019s father Fred, see Will Kaufman, \u201cWoody Guthrie, \u2018Old Man Trump\u2019 and a real estate empire\u2019s racist foundations,\u201d The Conversation<\/em>, January 21, 2016, https:\/\/theconversation.com\/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026<\/a>. For a recent example of appropriation, see Daniel Desrochers, \u201cWoody Guthrie\u2019s family to Josh Hawley: Stop using his lyrics, \u2018insurrectionist\u2019,\u201d The Kansas City Star<\/em>, March 13, 2023, https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/news\/politics-government\/article272998185.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason Lee Guthrie For the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy blog, in fulfillment of obligations for the Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship In early 1940, Woody Guthrie was on the road to New York City, and he was tired. Tired of traveling. Tired of the cold. Tired of having to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,253,337,454,484,491,618,648,691,760,831,893,920,1027,1036,1058,1247,1453,1454,1455,1557,1560,1575,1576],"class_list":["post-11705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright","tag-1976-copyright-act","tag-carter-family","tag-copyright-2","tag-donald-trump","tag-edison-fellowship","tag-electronic-frontier-foundation-eff","tag-god-bless-america","tag-happy-birthday","tag-inc","tag-jason-lee-guthrie","tag-kate-smith","tag-little-darling","tag-marjorie-mazia-guthrie","tag-nora-guthrie","tag-oh-my-loving-brother","tag-pal-of-mine","tag-robert-brauneis","tag-the-richmond-organization-tro","tag-this-land","tag-this-land-is-your-land","tag-warner-chappell-music","tag-we-shall-overcome","tag-woody-guthrie","tag-woody-guthrie-center"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15591,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11705\/revisions\/15591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}