Men At Work rips folk riff

2010-02-04 10:15

Sydney - Australian band Men at Work were found guilty on Thursday of plagiarising children's ditty Kookaburra in their 1980s hit Down Under after a court battle involving two of the nation's most iconic songs.

Federal Court judge Peter Jacobson found a flute riff in Down Under bore an unmistakable resemblance to Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, a folk tune taught to Australian schoolchildren for 75 years.

Music company Larrikin, which in 1990 acquired the rights to Kookaburra - penned by teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides Jamboree in 1935 - stand to gain royalties and compensation for the worldwide hit.

"I have come to the view that the flute riff in Down Under in the 1979 recording and 1981 recording infringes on the copyright of Kookaburra, because it replicates in material form a substantial part of Ms. Sinclair's 1935 work," Jacobson ruled on Thursday.

The judge said Larrikin was entitled to an as-yet-undetermined amount of unpaid royalties and compensation from both Men at Work and music labels Sony BMG and EMI.

"It's a big win for the underdog," Larrikin's lawyer Adam Simpson told reporters outside court.

Simpson said Larrikin would be pushing for the labels and songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert to hand over between 40% and 60% of their earnings from the song. A costs hearing will begin on February 25.

Down Under, an unofficial Australian anthem and jukebox staple worldwide, was also the theme tune for the victorious 1983 Australian team in yachting's Americas Cup.

The song, which featured at the close of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, pays tribute to Vegemite sandwiches and a land where "beer does flow and men chunder (vomit)".

- SAPA

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