Iconic Aussie Eighties Band 'Men At Work' being sued for Plagiarism
aries 8 comments
How is this for just plain greedy and pathetic!
Iconic Aussie 80's band 'Men At Work' are facing a multi-million dollar bill after a judge ruled that a section of their hit song Down Under was copied from a popular Australian folk song.
Justice Peter Jacobson said the band ripped off the flute melody from the 1934 Girl Guides' song, 'Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree' and that the flute melody in Down Under was unmistakably the same as the Kookaburra song penned by teacher Marion Sinclair.
What really peeves me about all this is that for 30 years almost, no one gave crap until lead singer Colin Hay admitted in a TV interview recently that they had used the melody to inject a bit of Aussie humour and feeling into the song.
The judge decided however, that a Qantas advertisement which had used a similar section of the riff was not in breach of copyright laws.
Outside the Sydney court Larrikin Music's lawyer, Mr Adam Simpson, said
"EMI and the the song writers may be forced to hand over as much as 60 percent of their undisclosed earnings from the international hit record".
WTF? How do you even possibly, a) justify, and b) estimate such a ludicrous figure???
"It's a big win for the underdog,"
said Mr Simpson. Yeah right!!!
ITS ALL A BIT BLOODY UN-AUSTRALIAN TO ME!!!
Fair suck of the sauce bottle fellas, pull ya bloody heads in will ya?
Rodney
Thursday 4th February 2010 | 07:57 PM...in response to this comment by Mikey. Yeah, just when one judge makes a sane decision on copyright...
Rodney
Thursday 4th February 2010 | 08:06 PM
This kind of feels more than just a little wrong. Our overseas audience may not get this one, fully. This is a little like suing Australia for being Australian. Maybe even our younger Australian readers might not feel this like some of us Gen X, X/Y people do. This song, despite being corny and old, is kind of the sound of Australia. If you go overseas and go to a pub, and this comes on, every Aussie will run to the dance floor - even the Aussie blokes who never dance. This song was the official song of Australia II's victory in the America's Cup - the first non-American boat to win. It was the closing song at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It's like the audible equivalent of drinking beer and eating meat pie.
In reality, I don't think this band ever had another hit and I don't think this song was actually very commercially successful, in any case, so I am not sure Men at Work will have much money to cover the damages that will no doubt be ridiculously large, by the time the court system is finished with them.
AlyC
Friday 5th February 2010 | 11:05 AMI hope they appeal this decision .. as im a musician and I cant see that this is a breach one is a minor key the other a major and the melody notes are not that much of a match for me personally .. no more that 4 bars match .. I dont get it ..
andrew
Friday 5th February 2010 | 03:01 PM
this is how it all started "The 18-month court battle was launched by Larrikin Music Publishing, which owns the copyright to the Kookaburra song, after Spicks and Specks host Adam Hills asked this question on air: "Which children's song is contained in the song Down Under?"
The correct answer was Kookaburra.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1008582
aries
Friday 5th February 2010 | 03:33 PM...in response to this comment by andrew. ahhhh that's right, I actually was watching that episode and forgot all about it!
Mini Mel
Saturday 6th February 2010 | 01:38 PM
its just bloody madness. ffs. i thought you could use a sample of a song without fear of retribution.. there is only a small amount of the old kookaburra song that is actually used in the men at work song. hardly enough to chuck so much of a stink that this occured
yes, i totally agree, at the end of the day its just plain greed. the next thing will be a war between the person that penned the jingle to twinkle twinkle little star and those who copied it for the abc's
men at work will always win over kookaburra.
TVBIZ(BOB)
Saturday 6th February 2010 | 06:14 PM
I believe they can only recoup money for the last 6 or 7 years - not from when the song was first released.
A nice little profit for the people who bought the rights to the Kookaburra for only $6,000.
I guess in the end it is only proper and wise to first ask permission before adding any samples of copyrighted tunes into your own song. At least then you could come to some sort of arrangement beneficial to both parties.
Mikey
Thursday 4th February 2010 | 07:51 PMI couldn't believe it when I heard that news. So will the main roads dept sue for using the term 'Men at work' as the band name?