Men At Work face £33m bill: Judge rules Australian band copied Down Under melody

[Afghan Dave]

OK musicologists!  :P

The full article is linked at the bottom of this post but listen to the two and see if YOU think they copied it...  :?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Uq6AB_4hM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT7uZf7lew

£33 million is a lot to lose....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248394/Band-Men-Work-rapped-plagiarism-Down-Under-No-1-hit.html

[Denim n Leather]

Nonsense.

[mikeluke]

I think that Vai had a case v Coldplay but this is nonsense - chalk and cheese/ar$e and elbow!

[Sifu Ben]

isten to the flute lines, that's the problem I think. However, 60% for some incidental fills that account for maybe 20 seconds of the song and aren't part of the main melody?

[Ratrod]

I read it too in a paper.

The flute has some similarities but other than that the two songs are nothing alike.

[MrBump]

'Down Under' was released in 1983.

'The Kookaburra Song' was circa 1935.

The Writer of 'The Kookaburra Song' died 20 years ago.

Why did this case even happen?

[Nadz1lla]

'Down Under' was released in 1983.

'The Kookaburra Song' was circa 1935.

The Writer of 'The Kookaburra Song' died 20 years ago.

Why did this case even happen?

Because planet Earth is now called planet "If there's a slim chance I can sue someone and make a bunch of easy money I will". It sickens me. Just like all these "no-win-no-fee" adverts on TV, I hate the world we live in sometimes. Some lazy degenerate retard thinks they can get money from a band for a couple of similar notes in a tiny part of a song, if anyone can do that, then every recording artist that has ever released a record is in danger of being the next cash cow.
Sickening.  :x

[HTH AMPS]

'Down Under' was released in 1983.

'The Kookaburra Song' was circa 1935.

The Writer of 'The Kookaburra Song' died 20 years ago.

Why did this case even happen?

because of the people who own the copyright to the Kookaburra song - publishing is where the money is at, every musician should know that.

[jibidy]

'Down Under' was released in 1983.

'The Kookaburra Song' was circa 1935.

The Writer of 'The Kookaburra Song' died 20 years ago.

Why did this case even happen?

I think its 70 years after the owner of rights dies, then it becomes public domain.

[Johnny Mac]

It stinks of corruption to me. This is a massive amount of money.

[Philly Q]

I hadn't actually bothered to listen to the Kookaburra song until now.  Yes, the second phrase of the flute part sounds a bit like the opening line of the song, but it's certainly not identical.  There are really no more similarities between these two tunes than there are between loads of familiar melodies. 

Does it justify a £33m court case?  Hell no!

To be honest, I always assumed the flute part was meant to sound like an old Australian campfire song, in a generic, affectionate sort of way.

[gwEm]

we learnt the kookabura song at school - i assumed it was traditional.

they certainly have ripped off a little bit of it, but i cant see the problem here, its just adding a touch of flavour

[Johnny Mac]

I hadn't actually bothered to listen to the Kookaburra song until now.  Yes, the second phrase of the flute part sounds a bit like the opening line of the song, but it's certainly not identical.  There are really no more similarities between these two tunes than there are between loads of familiar melodies. 

Does it justify a £33m court case?  Hell no!

To be honest, I always assumed the flute part was meant to sound like an old Australian campfire song, in a generic, affectionate sort of way.

That's what I thought Philly, about the flute actually sounding a bit like an Aussie song. I've had a good listen to the two and it's definitely not a note for note copy of any of the bars of music in the Kookaburra song. I think someone has taken a massive bung to see that it was plagiarism and they're going to have a nice big divvy up. What a bunch of slags.

[choucas09]

Firstly I would say there is only the most tenuous of links between the two songs and the whole business is ridiculous. However I was living in Newquay when this song came out and while I liked it along with everybody else when it came out over the following years I heard it about two million times on the local juke boxes and grew to hate it with a passion. So f*ck em I'm going to put in a claim for a few hundred for disturbing the bluey/soap/stella balance of my surf years.