Men At Work -sued for plagiarism

[bucyboy]

Someone sent me this story and I thought it was interesting.



Australian band Men at Work have lost a federal court case in Sydney,
Australia, after being sued for plagiarism over their 1981 number one US
and UK hit single 'DownUnder.'

The band now face paying up to 60% of the song's income,after the court
ruled the song copied its flute riff from a Girl Guidessong called
'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.' The campfire songwas originally
written for the 1935 Girl Guides Jamboree, by thenow-deceased Marion
Sinclair.

Another court hearing is set totake place later this month to determine
the compensation due from Menat Work's credited songwriters Colin Hay
and Ron Strykert as well asSony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Songs
Australia.

LarrikinMusic, who own the song, started court proceedings last summer,
after aTV music quiz show in Australia pointed out the similarities of
both in2007.

Larrikin Music's lawyer Adam Simpson told Associated Press Sydney,
"It's a big win for the underdog."

[matto]

This is pretty funny...

When I first heard that song on the radio in 1983 when it was a hit I immediately thought they'd "cited" the Kookaburra song (which I was familiar with) on purpose. But I thought the Kookaburra song was PD and therefore no problem.

Interesting that it took everybody else 25 years longer to hear the similarity LOL.

This brings up an interesting question. The flute riff was (probably) improvised by flute player Greg Ham during the recording session and thus NOT written by Colin Hay and Ron Strykert who are the credited co-writers of the song, so how can their copyright be garnished? Isn't it just part of the recording, but not the underlying song?
It's also pretty bizarre that that little flute riff which only appears in the intro and interlude should be worth up to 60% of the song...I mean it's neither the song's main melody, lyric, chord progression...

[manyunk]

Your right Matt...I don't think it would fly in an American courtroom....

[simonparker]

they should get sued for introducing me to vegamite. Yuck yuck yuck. Agree with Matto maybe, that riff shouldn't be what decides it. Of course, if I wrote a song and used the riff to "Satisfaction", I could see where I'd get sued...so tuff call, glad I'm not Men at Work.

[cardell]

This brings up an interesting question. The flute riff was (probably) improvised by flute player Greg Ham during the recording session and thus NOT written by Colin Hay and Ron Strykert who are the credited co-writers of the song, so how can their copyright be garnished? Isn't it just part of the recording, but not the underlying song?
It's also pretty bizarre that that little flute riff which only appears in the intro and interlude should be worth up to 60% of the song...I mean it's neither the song's main melody, lyric, chord progression...

Yes, and it's not even the exact same notes. Did anyone know about music in that court room?

Stuart

[matto]

My suspicions confirmed...this is an excerpt from a rebuttal by Colin Hay:

In his statement, Hay states that the flute riff was not added until 1979 when new band member (Geg Ham) "unconsciously referenced two bars of Kookaburra on the flute during live shows... and it did end up in the Men At Work recording".

"What's interesting to me, is that Mr Lurie is making a claim to share in the copyright of a song, namely Down Under, which was created and existed for at least a year before Men At Work recorded it," continued Hay.

"When I co-wrote Down Under back in 1978, I appropriated nothing from anyone else's song.

"There was no Men At Work, there was no flute, yet the song existed. That's the truth of it, because I was there, Norm Lurie was not, and neither was Justice Jacobson," wrote an emotional Hay.

So IMHO again they could sue to get part of the mechanicals for sales of the recording which contains the riff, but they should NOT be allowed to lay any claim to the underlying song and copyright. If they are allowed to then that's pretty scary actually...

[DesireeBowen]

My husband loves copyright law... its been one of his favorite classes so far, and might be the field he specializes in once he is out of law school. He is always talking about these music cases he has studied, they are pretty interesting. I'll have to let him loose on this one to see what he thinks!

Desiree