EMI Appeals Men At Work Copyright Ruling in Australia
EMI has lodged an appeal against a court ruling that the Australian band Men at Work copied a flute melody from a “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” in their hit song “Down Under.”
EMI lists 14 grounds for appeal, and says that similarities between the two melodies were not likely to be noticed by a typical radio or music listener.
In February, The Federal Court of Australia has found in favor of Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd in a decision regarding whether Men at Work¹s song “Down Under” contained a flute solo that infringed the copyright of the Australian children¹s song Kookaburra, published by Larrikin.
The matter involved assessing evidence from Down Under’s composers, musical specialists and an analysis of the notes making up both musical phrases
The court determined that the 1979 and 1981 recordings of Down Under infringe Larrikin’s copyright in Kookaburra as both recordings reproduce a substantial part of Kookaburra, but specified that the determination does not amount to a finding that the flute riff is a substantial part of Down Under, or that it is the “hook” of that song.
