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A tourist touches a kookaburra at Ku-ring-gai chase national park in Pittwater, 40km north of Sydney.
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Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson deemed today that the flute riff from the hit song "Down Under", penned by Men at Work, had indeed used a "substantial part" of the melody from "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree".
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Kookaburra was written in 1934 by Marion Sinclair, a school teacher who had entered the song in a competition organized by the Girl Guide Association of Victoria. The copyright for the song was held by the South Australian Public Trustee until Larrikin Music acquired it in 1990.
It was only after a television program pointed out the similarities between the two songs, did Larrikin Music's managing director Norman Lurie launch legal action against the band last year. Lurie sought backdated royalties from and a share of future profits from songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert as well as record company EMI.
Both parties have been ordered by Jacobsen to enter royalty mediation talks. February 25 is the date that has been set to determine the compensation due to Larrikin from Hay and Strykert. Larrikin's lawyer, Adam Simpson, said they were seeking up to 60 percent of the earnings from the distinctive song, a sum which could run into millions of dollars.
"Down Under" is Australia's unofficial anthem, topping music charts in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom in early 1983.
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5th, 2010
3:02am
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