Men At Work ordered to hand over royalties
7th July 2010
Australian pop group Men At Work have been ordered to hand over five per cent of the royalties from their 1980s hit song Down Under after a judge ruled they had copied part of the tune from a children's campfire song.
The distinctive flute riff of the song was found to have been taken from the song Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gumtree.
A judge in Sydney's Federal Court ruled that the band must relinquish the royalties, a sum that is expected to total several hundred thousand dollars, although an exact amount has not been specified to Larrikin Music, which owns the rights to Kookaburra.
The figure is not expected to reach into the millions, because, under Australian law, compensation only dates back to 2002.
Despite being forced to pay out, the ruling is a victory of sorts for Men At Work, and their record label EMI Songs Australia. Larrikin Music had argued that it was owed 60 per cent of the band's royalties, a claim that was denied by the judge.
At the time, Men At Work songwriter Colin Hay told the court that the band had not sought copyright clearance because it was an "unconscious" reference to the children's song.
Larrikin's claim was upheld, but in his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Peter Jacobson said he considered "the figures put forward by Larrikin to be excessive, overreaching and unrealistic".
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