Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

[kurdy]

I've known that Kookabura song since 4th grade, and even I've never noticed the snippet in "Down Under". It clearly is the same melody, but used so subtley--I probably would never have noticed had it not been pointed out. In fact, I've heard the song come on the radio several times since hearing about that lawsuit, and even then, I wasn't able to pick it out until now.

The Beatles did a similar thing, using part of Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" at the end of "All You Need Is Love", and I believe they ran into some trouble for it. So even the Fab Four weren't immune to that sort of thing.

This is somewhat off-topic, but first time I remember hearing "Down Under", I thought the guy was Jamaican. Anyone else have that experience?

[Cry Logic]

[CENTER]Colin Hay's Acoustic version of Down Under.

A little bit of stand up from Collin at 1st.
Song kicks in at 1:19

[YOUTUBE]owAPNHiRXOg[/YOUTUBE]


.. and here is his is response to the judgement.[/CENTER]

[Rudolf von Hag…]

[FONT="Courier New"]
+ 9'500'000 AU$ royalties "Down Under"
- 1'100'000 AU$ two bars Kookabura flute
= 8'400'000 AU$[/FONT]

[John Sayers]

Someone suggested that Men At Work re-release the song without the flute and all royalties go toward paying off Larrikin

[claveslave]

Stick that up on gearslutz. There's an author there who thinks he's an author.

[Zooey]

Plagiarism suits have been lost over nonsense even subtler than this. I'm thinking of the way Bette Midler sued.....and won.... when a car commercial featured a girl singing "Do Ya Wanna Dance?" slowly and sexily. Midler claimed that her "style had been appropriated". Not her song, her "style". What's the world coming to if you can't imitate somebody else's "style" ?

Tom Waits won a similar suit, but Nancy Sinatra lost hers. AFAIK, those cases had nothing to do with copyright because the underlying musical composition was validly licensed. They involved the right of publicity.

[rasputin1963]

They involved the right of publicity.

And that must be a very sticky province of the law, I should think....

[Billster]

Plagiarism suits have been lost over nonsense even subtler than this. I'm thinking of the way Bette Midler sued.....and won.... when a car commercial featured a girl singing "Do Ya Wanna Dance?" slowly and sexily. Midler claimed that her "style had been appropriated". Not her song, her "style". What's the world coming to if you can't imitate somebody else's "style" ?

White v. Samsung (1992)

The advertisement, which prompted the current dispute was for Samsung video-cassette recorders (VCRs). The ad depicted a robot, dressed in a wig, gown, and jewelry, which Deutsch consciously selected to resemble White’s hair and dress. The robot was posed next to a game board which is instantly recognizable as the Wheel of Fortune game show set, in a stance for which White is famous. The caption of the ad read: "Longest-running game show. 2012 A.D." Defendants referred to the ad as the "Vanna White" ad. Unlike the other celebrities used in the campaign, White neither consented to the ads nor was she paid.

What the hell is a VCR? :lol:

And will "Wheel of Fortune" still be on in only 2 more years??!?!?!?

[Flogger59]

The Beatles did a similar thing, using part of Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" at the end of "All You Need Is Love", and I believe they ran into some trouble for it. So even the Fab Four weren't immune to that sort of thing.

While the song was in the public domain, the Beatles and George Marti were sued for using the arrangement, which was still under copyright.

[paulz]

zooey, I get the sense you are a lawyer or have significant legal training, so I figure I'd ask U. I dig this is in australia and you are US (I assume Australia is common law) , but do you think there is an opportunity for a laches defense in the Men at Work case? I'm not knowledgeable on the practicals of laches, I dig the basic concept and that's abt the limit of my exposure to it.

[Zooey]

zooey, I get the sense you are a lawyer or have significant legal training, so I figure I'd ask U.
I dig this is in australia and you are US (I assume Australia is common law) , but do you think there is an opportunity for a laches defense in the Men at Work case?

I'm not knowledgeable on the practicals of laches, I dig the basic concept and that's abt the limit of my exposure to it.

I'm a practicing IP attorney, but I'm not a litigator. It certainly sounds to me like the the copyright owner sat on his rights for an unreasonably long time.

[Extreme Mixing]

Lawyers At Work. :facepalm:

Hey! You stole the first third of that from Jackson Brown!!! Somebody sue Phil!!!

Steve

[paulz]

I'd say more like "executives at work" - the lawyers might bring up the opportunity, even advise the client that -in their opinion - it would be a good idea for this and that reason, and then in litigation present the best case for their client -- but it's the client, the exec, the IP owner that has to give the "go"...it's their IP, it's their claim

[miden]

Reminds me of an old famous (I think) cartoon, where a cows head was being pulled by a person, the tail being pulled by another person, and a lawyer sitting in the middle milking the cow into a rather large bucket

[paulz]

And the milk is being drunk by an exec

[Beck]

The theme is obvious in the flute part, but what a ridiculous lawsuit and ruling. We live in desperate times indeed. I remember singing Kookaburra in kindergarten here in the states... Mrs. Roth's morning class in case you're wondering.

[John Sayers]

Here's an interview with Warren Fahey who created Larrikin Music and sold it in the late 80s. It's his take on the affair. http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/02/bst_20100209_0807.mp3

[rasputin1963]

Reminds me of an old famous (I think) cartoon, where a cows head was being pulled by a person, the tail being pulled by another person, and a lawyer sitting in the middle milking the cow into a rather large bucket

My dad, a lawyer, has that very woodcut print framed lovingly in his study....:lol:

[Cry Logic]

Here's an interview with Warren Fahey who created Larrikin Music and sold it in the late 80s. It's his take on the affair.

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/02/bst_20100209_0807.mp3

So the melody for Kookaburra is not even original.
WTF?
How is it possible for copyright to exist in a work that wasn't actually
composed by the supposed author?
Well at least the music wasn't.
Seems that Marion Sinclair adapted the "original" melody and may've even
simply changed the "original" lyrics to be "more Australian".

I wonder if defense lawyers actually knew about this and played it to the court?

[John Sayers]

let's see what the appeal comes up with.