http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jul/06/men-at-work-down-under

The way these things normally go, IIRC, is that the litigants ask/demand a ridiculously unrealistic sum, then the lawyers for both sides haggle it down to something more appropriate – the thinking is usually that if you start big, there’s the occasional chance you might finish big.

Gah! Bono morphed “Electric Co.” into “Send in the Clowns” during the Red Rocks concerts, but that didn’t make them the same or even similar.

I wonder who was using 210.10.199.224 on 31/10/06. (I miscopied the IP address above, for some reason.) It just resolves to an Australian ISP, so the trail goes cold.

*Horrible thought: given the delay between 31 October 2006 and July 2009, perhaps this thread was what actually tipped Larrikin off.

…we should be asking in the context of the current climate, just how artists should be paid, and more importantly who should be paying them?
Is the current copyright law adequate? And can publishers and distributors force internet providers to cut off an entire household’s broadband, with total impunity?

So if the 1970s were more or less “Kookaburra”‘s last laugh, even that tiny quote would be the only way anyone nowadays would hear anything from it. “Kookaburra”‘s author died in 1988, so her only immortality is in the memories of middle-aged-and-above Aussies like me… and in those few notes in “Down Under”.

So even if it was a conscious rip-off (which I’m not convinced it was), I don’t care. I don’t want to see Hay and Strykert bankrupted for the benefit of a copyright that has long since left a dead songwriter’s ownership, which sixty percent of megabucks of long-spent royalties could easily do. In the grand scheme of things, “Down Under” matters more to Australia than “Kookaburra”, the legal wranglings of lawyers looking for their “My Sweet Lord” moment notwithstanding.

(“My Sweet Lord” mattered more, too.)

@Rory. ‘Laugh, IP layers laugh.’ Brilliant!

The band should be compensated for the free publicity they gave Vegemite. How many non-Australians had heard of it before 1983?

Writing songs with a mate down under,
Looked around for some riffs to plunder.
Said to him, “Do you think we’ll risk it?”
He just smiled and handed me a Girl Guide biscuit.

And I said, “Ohhh! ‘Kookaburra’ is huge down under,
And one man’s ‘quote’ is a judge’s ‘blunder’.
Can’t you hear the reporters thunder?
We better run, we better take cover.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8175974.stm

The music video by Men At Work of the song Down Under shows “Tanelorn Rules” on the front of a van,perhaps referring to the Tanelorn Music Festival, held on the October Labour Day holiday weekend in 1981 near Karuah, north of Newcastle in Australia. This festival was subsequently regarded by some as being the ‘end’ of the age of Aquarius, as subsequent Australian outdoor festivals such as Narara ’85 had much of the atmosphere of an outdoor ‘beerbarn’, dominated by pub rock.

I’m still hoping that Martin will revive his Sci-fi authors thread – maybe looking at Moorcock?