Hard News: Hell's Bells
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The Men At Work composition itself is wholly original, but Greg Ham's flute break in the song as it has been recorded and performed has been deemed to be infringing, if not identical. Australians who thought they might have some cultural ownership in the old song have another think coming.
I don't think anyone would dispute that they're the same, I just don't understand how one riff comprising a very small percentage of the whole song - and not anything like the entirety of the song it appears to have come from - can entitle Larrikin to such a large share of the profits.
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I saw this men at work stuff on the news last night and i was a little mystfiyed.
One iconic australian song sues another... I dont see any winners in Australia...
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They sounded good from Point Chevalier – and, I am told, Mt Albert, Kingsland and a number of other suburbs.
Oh yes. Thunderstruck in minute detail, whether desired or not.
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I've heard the Down Under flute line and the Kookaburra tune side by side (and overlaid), and I'm buggered if I hear enough of a resemblance to warrant 60% of royalties being awarded.
Certainly nothing in the order of, say, Springsteen ripping off the Kiss melody from I Was Made For Loving You (try 1:45):
Off topic a bit, sorry, but anyone know if C4 still have the rights to The Daily Show? Or is it moving to Sky's Comedy Central channel?
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I don't think anyone would dispute that they're the same
They needed Auckland University's IP advisors on their side. I'm sure it was all inadvertent.
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There was this, in another SMH story:
The court heard that two of the four bars of Kookaburra were reproduced in Down Under's flute riff, which was added by band member Greg Ham after the song was composed. In an affidavit, Ham admitted adding the flute line to try to inject some Australian flavour into the song.
Justice Jacobson said perhaps the clearest illustration of the objective similarity between the songs was Hay's ''frank admission of a causal connection between the two melodies and the fact that he sang the relevant bars of Kookaburra when performing Down Under at gigs from 2002.
I had wondered whether it was accidental/unconscious plagiarism or they had assumed an old folk song was public domain. The latter, I would guess.
Story here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/news/2010/02/04/1265151932344.html
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I stayed away from Laneway, because I thought it might be an open-air Black Hole of Calcutta, with bonus queues. It seems I was right.
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I'm buggered if I hear enough of a resemblance to warrant 60% of royalties being awarded
Damages have not yet been determined. Larrakin are making noises about 60% in the hope they'll scare the hell out of EMI and the other defendants and encourage them to settle for a reasonably meaty amount (e.g. 20%). Standard litigation tactic.
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A sampling of both songs.
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Will I be hauled through the streets and battered to death with tire jacks if I say that AC/DC are truly awful?
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In the dross of pop music I can't remember which one it is, but didn't K Perry or Emina sample Savages Swing recently?
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There are some near-identical fragments. They sound different because MAW set those fragments over a (harmonically) very different accompaniment. I would say that's a rather nice musical effect, to play a familiar phrase over an unfamiliar harmony.
This is an excellent demonstration of the crippling effects of aggressive copyright enforcement on composition.
In the old days, composers regularly quoted and referenced their contemporaries and near predecessors (as in that memorable aphorism, "minor composers borrow, great composers steal"). This is basically impossible now unless your work is too minor to attract attention or you are rich enough to negotiate rights.
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Will I be hauled through the streets and battered to death with tire jacks if I say that AC/DC are truly awful?
Don't worry - I'll attempt a rescue. From a distance though.
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Will I be hauled through the streets and battered to death with tire jacks if I say that AC/DC are truly awful?
I'd leave Hamilton first.
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I'd leave Hamilton first.
Heh. Don't know about being battered to death, fans are probably quite mellow than most, but back in the day I liked them a lot.
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3410,
Between 40 and 60 per cent?
Greedy pricks. If it was up to me, I'd advise Men At Work to have a very good look at old Irish and Scottish folk tunes; there's a reasonable chance, IMO, that you'd find that riff.
'It's Choade My Dear'
That's quite a title.
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Yesterday saw the release of another major Australian copyright decision. In a landmark case the Australian arm of the Motion Picture Association sued the ISP iiNet - and lost.
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This David Merrott fellow sounds like my kind of author. Am off to do some purchasin'.
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Will I be hauled through the streets and battered to death with tire jacks if I say that AC/DC are truly awful?
I doubt it, it's hardly a radical perspective.
I'm not a metal fan but I think ACDC were a bit of big dumb fun back in the Bon Scott days. They should have called it quits like Led Zep when he died though, instead of bringing in that ear-gratingly awful Geordie to replace him.
No metal band can beat Motorhead for the non-metal fan though of course.
\m/
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I'd leave Hamilton first.
Sound advice
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re: Men at Work song
can't say I can hear the two pieces as being exactly the same either...what next VW wanting dosh for the Kombi reference...
and Kraft Corporation wanting their cut for the Vegemite namecheck? -
sued the ISP iiNet - and lost.
And established some precedent for ISPs not being liable for what is done over their networks, as I understand.
Much interest burbling, and possibly worthy of its own thread to avoid swamping others - though the title of this one might be appropriate.
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\m/
Is that a goat-throw?
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I could hear AC/DC's drums, even with the full bulk of Mount Albert standing between my back fence and Western Springs. The must have some serious acoustic insulation on their practice room...
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One of Bon Scott's pre -AC/DC bands.
So Spinal Tap "The Originals / The New Originals / The Thamesmen" era it hurts.
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