Men At Work`s Kookaburragate will be back in court on February 25 so that the parties can discuss the findings and the settlement.
This following a landmark ruling last week in favour of the publisher Larrikin Music claiming that the iconic Men At Work song ‘Down Under’ used what the judge and publisher considered to be a “substantial portion” of the Aussie evergreen ‘Kookaburra Sits In An Old Gum Tree’.While songwriter Colin Hay does admit that Greg Ham played a bit of the old song in his flute solo, he considers the Larrikin action to be nothing more the “opportunistic greed”.
Larrikin head Norm Lurie isn’t denying that. In today’s Brisbane Times he admits that Larrikin bought the song from the copyright owner Marion Sinclair for $6,100 and has exploited those rights to make “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.
Lurie says that “what has won out today is the importance of checking before using other people’s copyrights” but maybe closer to the truth is a warning to songwriters to be beware of signing away you rights to publishers who offer no ongoing financial benefits.
It should be started that the estate of the late Marion Sinclair will get nothing from this court win for Larrikin.
Men At Work’s ‘Down Under’ was originally demoed in 1978 and registered in 1978 without the Ham flute piece. The hit recording with the flute took place in 1981.
Ham’s flute piece was part of the arrangement and not part of the songwriting. He is not even credited as a songwriter on the Men At Work classic.
