Kookaburra trumps Down Under: Men at Work must pay in plagiarism case
An Australian court has ordered restitution for publisher Larrikin Music, owner of the copyright for Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree – the nursery rhyme at the center of a plagiarism dispute filed against Men at Work composers Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, and their publisher EMI.
The suit claims Men At Work’s successful single Down Under substantially reproduced the flute riff from Kookaburra and must now pay Larrikin 5% of the single’s future profits in addition to eight years of back royalties.
The ruling comes as a severe blow to flautist Greg Ham who spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald.
”I’m terribly disappointed that that’s the way I’m going to be remembered – for copying something. It has destroyed so much of my song. It will be the way the song is remembered and I hate that.”
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