Men at Work Lose Bid to Reverse ‘Kookaburra’ Riff Ruling
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Men at Work, the Australian band that won a Grammy award in 1983, lost a bid to reverse a court ruling that said a flute riff in their song “Down Under” breached the copyright of the 1934 children’s song “Kookaburra Sits in The Old Gum Tree.”
A three-member panel of the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney today upheld a lower court decision under which Larrikin Music Publishing Pty, owner of the “Kookaburra” copyright, was awarded 5 percent of revenue the band earned from the song.