AU Band Men At Work Owes Royalties On 'Kookaburra'

neonsignal writes "Iconic Australian band Men at Work have been ordered to pay royalties for an instrumental riff in their song 'Down Under.' The notes were sampled from a well-known children's song 'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree,' written in 1934 for a Girl Guide's Jamboree. The Justice found the claims of the copyright owner Larrikin to be excessive, but ordered the payment of royalties and a percentage of future profits. Let's hope the primary schools are up to date with their ARIA license fees!"

Comments

Re:1934

[JustinRLynn]

Residuuuuuuaaaaaaaaalllllllllllzzzzzzz!

Well, in truth.....

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

.....Men at Work do come from a land down under, where women glow and lawyers plunder.

Re:1934

[phantomfive]

Someone made a point that I think made sense......if we're going to have copyright, we ought to not make it based on the life of the creator.....otherwise it will be motivation to kill artists. Make it 15 years from the time it was created or something.

Who can it be now?

[deniable]

Nobody expects the Copyright Inquisition.

Re:All I remember is

[thoughtspace]

Kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree
F***ing all the sparrows he can see
Stop kookaburra
Stop kookaburra
That one's got VD ... ah, primary school humour.

Re:Somewhat bizarrely...

[catmistake]

"It really saddens me to think that, in the last years of her life, while Down Under was having huge commercial success, she was in a nursing home, not earning any money from it, and was probably entitled to."

Quoted above, Larrikin Music Publishing managing director Norm Lurie drags through his day, having not been able to help the author, he's had to settle for taking the money for himself, wiping his tears away with her royalties. It's so touching when a music executive is... sad.