Maybe there's something wrong with my sense of melody. But when I hear the Australian rock group Men at Work's "Down Under" hit from the 1980s, I don't immediately think of the "Kookaburra Sits In the Old Gum Tree" song.
But I'm not an Australian judge, obviously. A court there ruled that "Down Under" ripped off Kookaburra. And now EMI and Sony BMG could owe as much as 60 percent of the revenues generated by "Down Under" to the copyright holder, Larrikin Music. Crikey, as Steve Erwin used to say.
(In the following video, the singing starts at about the 1:23 mark.)
As the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports:
Larrikin Music accused the band of stealing the song's flute riff from the children's song Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree.
Record companies EMI and Sony BMG disputed the claim but today the Federal Court ruled in Larrikin's favour.
Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree was written by Melbourne teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides jamboree in 1934 and has been sung by generations of Australian children ever since.
Larrikin owns the rights to the song and took Sony BMG and EMI to court demanding compensation from Down Under songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert.
Costs are yet to be determined but Larrikin's solicitor Adam Simpson says they could run to 60 percent of the income derived from the song.
"Obviously the more the better, but it depends," he said.
"I mean, anything from what we've claimed, which is between 40 and 60 per cent, and what they suggest, which is considerably less."
John Anderson from EMI was not saying much outside court, except that the company would have to review what he called a complex judgement.
When asked if he expected significant damages to be awarded he gave this brief answer: "Not necessarily."
The judge also ruled that a Qantas advertisement which used a small similar section of the riff was not in breach of copyright laws. EMI said it was pleased with this decision but Mr Simpson was not ruling out further legal action.
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