Posted on 02/04/2010 2:30:15 PM PST by LdSentinal
A judge in Sydney, Australia ruled today that Men at Work’s ’80s megahit “Down Under” infringes on the copyright of an old children’s song called “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree,” according to the AP. “Kookaburra…” was originally written by an Australian teacher named Marion Sinclair, who died in 1988. The song’s copyright is now owned by the publishing company Larrikin Music, which sued for unpaid royalties. “I have come to the view that the flute riff in ‘Down Under’ … infringes on the copyright of ‘Kookaburra’ because it replicates in material form a substantial part of Ms. Sinclair’s 1935 work,” said Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson. The judge ordered the litigants to return to court on February 25 to discuss compensation.
Men At Work singer Colin Hay has responded to the judge’s decision with a lengthy statement, in which he admits that bandmate Greg Ham “unconsciously referenced two bars of Kookaburra on the flute… and it did end up in the Men At Work recording.” But Hay argues that it was part of the song’s arrangement, not its composition. Hay concludes by writing that the song, “lives in my heart, and may perhaps live in yours. I claim it, and will continue to play it, for as long as you want to hear it.”
Colin is actually quite a guitar player, incidentally.
Is there no statute of limitations on such a claim? Goddness, it been 25 years!
I know both songs and frankly, I don’t see very much similarity. This is in no way a slam-dunk, as was the “He’s So Fine/My Sweet Lord” plagiarism.
2 bars of a solo? That means every Blues song should be in court.
Completely ridiculous...
What's fun is when you're playing tenor saxophone in rock situation, you're playing in F# and B all night...
It's really an excellent album all around.
And he had a guest appearance on ‘Scrubs’.
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be
when I sang that song to my kids when they were younger, my oldest looked at me quizzically and said, “Gay?”.
Ridiculous...
I have heard a lot worse. And why didn’t Marion Sinclair before she died in 1988? Why didn’t Larrikin Music sue before 2010?
Is there ANY melody which has nothing in common with SOME music from the past? What's next, copyrighting chord progressions, so that any song with a 1-4-5 in the chorus is now Off Limits?
Copyright law should mirror patent law, IMO. I don't believe three generations of descendants are entitled to a residual income from one's work.
a great line, indeed.
Saxophones come in different keys?? Could get a bit unwieldy at times!
“I thought I heard” “Women go, and then thunder..”
That judge has a head full of zombie.
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