Tuesday, July 6, 2010

WORSE THAN A VEGEMITE SANDWICH: The flute solo in Men at Work's "Down Under" has been deemed a copyright infringement by Australian courts. The infringed work? "Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree." (And a YouTube purporting to show the ripoff.) I will say that my first thought upon hearing the story was surprise that "Kookaburra" is not in the public domain, and my second thought was that while I hadn't noticed it before, there is a striking similarity in the flute solo.
Posted by Matt at 10:09 AM

12 comments:

  1. Jenn.11:25 AM

    Is there seriously no laches or statute of limitations here?  That song was well over 20 years old when the case was brought, and been licensed for all sorts of stuff.  Being able to come up years later and say "give me my share" seems very problematic.

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  2. isaac_spaceman11:57 AM

    If the case were brought here, you'd probably be right.  But the Aussies don't ever (evah?) seem in a hurry for anything (enithin?), so maybe their laches law takes its cues from them that way. 

    As for the flute solo, it's not just striking similarity.  It seems like the whole point was to use Kookaburra to evoke Australianness the same way that the song uses "vegemite" to convey the same thing. 

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  3. Adam12:10 PM

    It's an interesting counter to the whole Midnight Oil "it belongs to them/let's give it back" stance -- but the Oils were insisting on the government returning things to people, as opposed to things the band itself had approrpriated.  Did they pay Truganini's or Albert Namatijira's estates for the life rights?

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  4. isaac_spaceman2:19 PM

    Their instinct probably was the same as Matt's -- that's not in the public domain? 

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  5. Russ2:27 PM

    This seems like a semi-appropriate opening to alert folks to this album/CD/whatever, which I downloaded yesterday (it's on iTunes) after hearing the acoustic version of "Heat of the Moment."  There are some other keepers too, if you're into the 80s music.  http://www.amazon.com/80s-Hits-Stripped-Various-Artists/dp/B000FGG5PS 

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  6. Matt2:31 PM

    Wiki indicates the song was written in 1934, which puts it not in the public domain even under US law.  See also the lucrative estates of Mildred and Patty Hill.

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  7. Jenn.2:34 PM

    Ugh. Now the flute solo from Down Under is stuck in my head. 

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  8. Marsha2:35 PM

    Many copies available on eBay even cheaper than iTunes. Just bought one. Thanks, Russ!

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  9. Chuck2:42 PM

    That decision? It's a Mistake.  Seems like Overkill to me.  Who Can It Be next?  Will Robert Louis Stevenson be suing over Dr. Hekyll and Mr. Jive?  I guess Men at Work wants No Restrictions on what they do or say. 

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  10. Jim Bell9:27 AM

    I listened to the samples on itunes, this is an awesome record.  Thanks Russ.  (Did note, however, from the reviews that the fill album has two cool songs that are missing from the itunes version.)

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  11. Russ9:41 AM

    Thanks for mentioning that -- the list on Amazon did contain some surprises, and I forgot to go back and look at whether I'd received all the songs.  In addition to the acoustic "Heat of the Moment" (which I cannot get out of my head), I'm quite taken by the "stripped" versions of "The Metro," "Promises, Promises," and "Your Love."  

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  12. Genevieve1:01 PM

    That is definitely not the Kookaburra tune I learned.  Are there multiple tunes?

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