Men At Work Ordered To Pay 5% Of Earnings On 'Down Under' Over Copyright Claim
from the kookaburra-this dept
Last summer we were among those amazed at the claim from a music publisher that the popular 80's song, "Down Under," by the band, Men at Work, supposedly infringed on a popular Australian folk tune, Kookaburra, that was written back in the 1930s. The publisher who sued, Larrikin, had only taken possession of the copyright on the folk tune in 2000, and didn't even notice the similarity until a TV quiz show pointed it out. You would think that this, alone, should make any copyright claim null and void. But... not to the Australian courts, who first ruled that the song infringed earlier this year and now (thanks to sinsi for pointing this out) have said that the band needs to pay Larrikin 5% of its royalties from 2002 onward. The only "good" news is that Larrikin had asked for 60%, even though the use of Kookaburra is limited to a little flute solo, and is clearly an homage to the song. Also, since the royalties only start in 2002, well after the song has faded from popularity, it may limit what Larrikin gets. Still, the whole lawsuit, and the fact that this was found to be infringing, is a bit of a travesty.
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Filed Under: australia, copyright, down under, kookaburra, men at work
Companies: larrikan music
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Travesty?
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Re: Travesty?
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Re: Re: Travesty?
what a bunch of greedy wipes!!!
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn965-wheel-patented-in-australia.html
Figures .
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The damages which follow from my findings on liability are not damages for copyright infringement [emphasis mine]. Rather, they are damages under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (“the Act”) for misrepresentations made by the respondents to collecting societies, the Australasian Performing Right Association (“APRA”) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (“AMCOS”).
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Re:
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Beds are Burning
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Re: Beds are Burning
Ironically, Peter Garrett is (or was, somewhat recently) an MP in Austrailia.
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Re: Beds are Burning
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Re: Beds are Burning
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Re: Re: Beds are Burning
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LoL
From the industry that is notorious about never making accurate accounting statements and is very well known for the "creative accounting" practices that led Al Capone to jail?
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...and a bit scary.
This case may have very well opened up some proverbial gates. I can imagine people now trying to scoop up copyrights to old songs in the hopes that they have have sampled and get a lawsuit out of it.
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a hoax? looks like one
Here's the first two returns on a Google search for the word.
Larrikinism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term larrikin was used to refer to "a mischievous or frolicsome youth", as reported in the Supplement, English Dialect Dictionary, editor J. Wright, ...
Etymology - Evolution of Larrikin culture - Larrikin - See also
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrikinism - Cached - Similar
larrikin: Definition from Answers.com
Sep 6, 2006 ... larrikin n. Australian A person given to comical or outlandish behavior. [Origin unknown.]
www.answers.com/topic/larrikin - Cached - Similar
It's kind of the Oz equivalent of Til Eulenspeigel or those guys in New York who do the pantsless subway ride event every year.
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Re: a hoax? looks like one
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1930s
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GOLDDIGGING!
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Actually has a good comparison of the parts that are supposed to be similar... the sheer fact it is less than a few seconds out of an entire song should have been enough to throw this out.
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Infringement Is Infringement
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