Men At Work singer Colin Hay yesterday lashed out over a court case that found his iconic Down Under anthem plagiarized a well-known Girl Guides ditty, describing it as “opportunistic greed.”
Hay said the case was “all about money, make no mistake.”
“I believe what has won today is opportunistic greed, and what has suffered is creative musical endeavour,” Hay wrote in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
The Federal Court on Thursday found a catchy flute riff in Down Under bore an unmistakable resemblance to Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, which was penned for a Girl Guides jamboree in 1935. Music company Larrikin bought the rights to Kookaburra in 1990.
Hay denied borrowing from Kookaburra when he wrote Down Under in 1978, but said band member Greg Ham “unconsciously referenced” the folk tune: “It was and continues to be played countless times all over the world, and it is no surprise that in more than 20 years, no one noticed the reference to Kookaburra.”
Larrikin’s lawyer Adam Simpson said the company would be pushing for the labels, Hay and fellow songwriter Ron Strykert to hand over between 40 and 60 percent of their earnings from the song. A costs hearing begins on Feb. 25.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
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