Men at Work frontman slams court ruling

[Stackabones]

From HCSWF's Copyright Desk ...

 

 

The Federal Court found the flute riff in the song was originally from the tune of Kookaburra Sits In An Old Gum Tree. In an open letter to fans, Hay maintains the ruling will not change his feelings for the Australian classic, which he penned with Ron Strykert over 30 years ago. While Hay went on to maintain the flute riff was not part of the original song so therefore should not be considered an infringement of copyright, the statement focuses on his anger at how the case has been publicised. "The copyright of Kookaburra is owned and controlled by Larrikin Music Publishing, more specifically by a man named Norm Lurie. Larrikin Music Publishing is owned by a multi-national corporation called Music Sales," he said. "I only mention this as Mr Lurie is always banging on about how he's the underdog, the little guy. Yet, he is part of a multi-national corporation just like EMI Music Publishing. It's all about money, make no mistake." He says Marion Sinclair, who wrote Kookaburra, never complained about the similarities and there were enough differences between the riffs to consider them separate tunes. [...] Hay also says the ruling will hamper musical creativity across the industry. "What was born out of creative musical expression, became both a technical and mathematical argument. This ruling will have lasting repercussions, and I suspect not for the better," he said. His statement ends on a defiant note, reaffirming his commitment to the song. "This outcome will have no real impact upon the relationship that I have with our song Down Under, for we are connected forever. 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," he said. "That's the truth of it, because I was there, Norm Lurie was not, and neither was Justice Jacobson. Down Under lives in my heart, and may perhaps live in yours. I claim it, and will continue to play it, for as long as you want to hear it."

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/05/2811671.htm

[rhino55]

Interesting. Not sure what to think about all this as of yet

[blue2blue]

Huh... this is an interesting set of issues. The court apparently has suggested that an ornamental solo in a particular recording has somehow become intermingled with the IP of the song, itself, which apparently did not include any such solo melody.

 

I can understand that alleged appropriation of a copyrighted melody should be actionable, but I'm not at all sure it makes any sense to go after the writer of the song that the (allegedly) infringing recording is principally of.

 

I mean, let's say I had written a song that was then covered by someone else, who inserted into that song a solo based on a melody copyrighted by someone else.

 

What justice would there be in coming after me?

 

 

Perhaps this brief article mangles or distorts the issues. But I have to say that this, on face, seems to be yet another case of an IP court wildly misunderstanding the core issues.

[Oswlek]

Clearly there was not a single songwriter amongst Hay's "group of peers". What a travesty this ruling is.

[Stackabones]

 

Clearly there was not a single songwriter amongst Hay's "group of peers". What a travesty this ruling is.

 

 

Yep. Sounds like the group of peers were all probably CEOs of big companies and music publishers. This whole thing just reeks.

[Chicken Monkey]

Colin Hay is awesome, but not awesome enough to change the world we create in.

[speierg]

This whole thing really is an outrage. As I wrote in the other thread...it's purely an opportunistic money grab by those who own the Kookaburra copyright. Seems like a classic case of "legal but wrong." They are within their legal rights to bring the suit, but it just seems completely WRONG to do so. But "the love of money is the root of all evil." Hmmm, I better be careful in quoting that....if someone owns the copyrights to the Bible they might just slap a lawsuit on me.