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Men at Work Accused of Ripping Off Children's Song

If you think you've heard the flute riff in Men At Work's 'Down Under' somewhere else, you may be on to something. A music publishing company, which owns the classic children's song 'Kookaburra,' claims that 'Down Under' rips off the kid's tune.

Larrikin, which owns 'Kookaburra,' says that the accompanying melody to the lyric "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" can be heard in 'Down Under.' Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, the 'Down Under' songwriters, will be meeting Larrakin in court to fight the dispute.

Lawyers on behalf of Hay, Strykert, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony DADC Australia, EMI Songs Australia and EMI Music Publishing intend to argue that "the 'Down Under' work does not incorporate the whole or any substantial part of the 'Kookaburra' work," and that the Girl Guides, an Australian scouting group, actually hold the copyright to 'Kookaburra.'

The songs are set to battle it out over the alleged breach of copyright within days.

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jay

gready ba####ds.

June 26 2009 at 2:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mel

I am a product of the 80's and I have 3 children, to think that Kookaburra and Down Under remotely sound the same, some one needs to put the crack pipe down...

June 25 2009 at 6:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
undrgrndgirl

umm...isn't it a little late to be b*tching about this???

June 25 2009 at 6:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Don

He'll probably win. Remember when George Harrison was sued over his song "My Sweet Lord"? They said it was stolen from the Shirrells (SP?) song "He's So Fine". But public domain songs are fair game. "Midnight Special" is a public domain song. Anyone can record it without paying anyone anything. It's all about greed.

June 25 2009 at 6:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JVDM

Larrikin, you greedy bastards! You better run, you better take covaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

June 25 2009 at 6:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dave

what is kookaburra ive never even herd of it. weather it was made up or not i should make up a hundred year old folk song and sue the jonas brother or any other crap band!

June 25 2009 at 6:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
edmi070274

it's a mistake. men at work is great.

June 25 2009 at 5:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kathleen

Bull crap! These people need to get a job.

June 25 2009 at 5:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott Pranke

30 years is a LONG time to wait before bringing this into public eye.. another question.. do thaey have a program that will reverse engineer a song and prove that the notes and arrangement are exactly alike? I can sing happy birthday several speeds, and keys am I going to be sued for the music or the words? It seems to me that there are a finite amount of musical notes, and they all follow the same basic pattern.. otherwise the music sounds like crap but since RAP (rude and Profane music has taken center stage I suspect that they are using the same not arrangements but the music (NOISE) is so terrible how could you know if they are using someone elses music? maybe they wanted the one section to sound like the kukabura song, and they just happened to hit the supposed exact arrangement?

June 25 2009 at 5:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kristik

The song in question came out 25+ years ago. Who cares?

June 25 2009 at 5:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply