sad end, and with the court case, was itall about money too?

Context – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17767264

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17767264

From another article:

Australian band Men At Work will not be allowed to make a final appeal against a ruling which found they partly copied 1983 hit Down Under from a folk song.

The High Court of Australia denied a final bid to quash a July 2010 ruling that a flute line from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree was copied.

Presume this is the money angle you are on about?

that’s the one. linking from a phone is a pain.

All over a 30 year old novelty hit song?
Jeez.

Whats goodbye in Australian? G’Bye mate?

I’ll ask in a couple of weeks

Novelty song? How many times has it been replayed and in how many countries even now? Its been consistently radio played since it was released. I bet there are loads of repeat royalties from that alone.

Whats goodbye in Australian? G’Bye mate?

hooroo cobber

Maybe.

It is very sad but the fact is that song and Album was their livelihood even today. A judgement meaning they’ve got to pay back money they’ve already spent would be crippling.

Pay money back to who if its a folk song?

EDIT: Read the bbc article.

Surely the people who wrote “the Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, penned more than 75 years ago.” will be long dead and buried by now, so what does it matter!

Surely the people who wrote “the Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, penned more than 75 years ago.” will be long dead and buried by now, so what does it matter!

The people who built my old house are long dead and buried but the ownership of the house still matters.

Is he now in a Land Down Under?

konabunny – Member
The people who built my old house are long dead and buried but the ownership of the house still matters.

This is about IP ownership – entirely different

ANALOGY FAIL! 😛

A tribute to a novelty song that is a classic.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1OUS_pipG0[/video]

Novelty song? How many times has it been replayed and in how many countries even now?

huh? Does that make it not a novelty song??

The B side was a far superior track IMO…

I liked the song before everyone else discovered it. 😉

This is about IP ownership – entirely different

Not an analogy fail at all – it’s all property, regardless of who created it. Bound up in the notion of property is the ability to alienate it by giving it to someone else – perhaps because you like what they’re doing (like the songwriter liked what the scouts/guides were doing and gave it to them) or perhaps because they gave you money (like the scouts/guides sold it to buy a campsite). The songwriter died seven years after Land Down Under came out.

I think the main problem was a fairly serious heroin addiction.

Having just dug out the youtube vid – he’s even sat in a tree playing the flute riff. In fact, the more I listen, the more blatant it seems. Pity it had to get so litigious though.