Thursday, February 04, 2010

Men At Work weren't prepared for that

Bad news for Men At Work - an Australian court has just found them guilty of plagiarism.

And not just any old plagiarism. Oh, no - Men At Work have stolen from the Girl Guides:

The Australian band Men at Work are facing a big legal bill after a court ruled it had plagiarised a Girl Guides' song in its 1983 hit, Down Under.

Although, actually, the song doesn't belong to the Girl Guides at all; it's actually owned by Larrikin Music.

They're seeking between 40% and 60% of the earnings from the song.

The big question is why the company didn't come forward until over twenty years after the song was released. Perhaps its one of those where you go "this reminds me of something... ooh, what is it?" For a couple of decades.

The court decided that Down Under borrows a little too heavily from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.

Still, the sorry story does allow the BBC News website to explain the song as if it was part of the court report:
A number one in Australia, the US and the UK, the song tells the story of an Australian backpacker touring the world.

It pays tribute to "a land down under where beer does flow and men chunder".

The song also refers to the popular Australian food spread Vegemite.

"I said 'Do you speak my language?', he just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich," says an Australian traveller in Brussels.

Now, in other news, upset following a cake being left out in the rain by persons unknown. The cake's owner is said to be struggling to come to terms with the event, a situation worsened as she is unlikely to have the recipe again.


1 comment:

iiii said...

Listening to the sample of the "original" song, the refrain "kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" does sound a bit like a small section of the flute part in down under

That's got to be worth between 40% and 60%

Copyright is clearly doing it's job though, making sure someone who has been dead for over 20 years gets his fair due

I'd be a lot more comfortable with the idea of copyright if it couldn't be used as a commodity

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