kookaburra vs. Down Under

[licensedtolive]

Very clever :)

[kaylasdaddy55]

Definitely a respectful tip of the cap. Men At Work are brilliant artists. They never needed nursery rhymes to be famous.

[MegaEjones]

It lines up to roughly Half the Chorus notes ( NOT ALL. Thats why the Kiddies singing disappears) and it lines up to Nothing of the Verse. At what point do you say NO to this kind of BS. Next, people will sue for an A-Sharp followed by a B Flat because they think they own that.

[shadowstalker9476]

im waiting for it to ask if i come from a land down under.

[ChaosCG]

I need a ten hours version of this :D

[magster65]

Once, there was a lawyer... now look.

[wattever333]

isn't it the responsibility of the music publisher to make sure there are no copyright issues? not the artists themselves?

[N73B60]

lol...

Colin Hay and Greg Ham are fucked!

[0GBrooklyn]

FREE SADDAM

[PazzSkittles]

omgg so what if they have the same tune ??? kookaburra was written by a school teacher , okaay so they sound the same , nowadays EVERY song sounds the same ! just get over it and enjoy both of these ledgendary australian songs !

[N73B60]

@PazzSkittles haven't you heard about the lawsuit?

[MysteriousElegance]

@PazzSkittles It's called copyright love, I did a music course we covered this case. Men at work breached copyright, that's all there is to it. Doesn't matter who wrote this song, it's still a huge it and nationally recognised.

[kaylasdaddy55]

@MysteriousElegance I disagree. First off, who keeps a copyright on a nursery rhyme? Is Rock-A-Bye-Baby copyrighted? This is taking a fragment of a song and incorporating it into an entirely different song, different genre, different context, lyrics, and tone. This was a money grab by a broke publisher.

[kaylasdaddy55]

@MysteriousElegance " 'Kookaburra' is a four-bar song," Simpson says. "Over half that song is used in 'Down Under,' which is the test of law."

Which is to say, two bars. From an NPR article.

[ClesmacioLuque]

this make me nervous dude!!! is creepy

[foxmass58]

@ClesmacioLuque creepy, you say? make a copy of the audio and listen to it in reverse.

[ClesmacioLuque]

this make me nervous dude!!!

[WilliamAztech]

DJ mash up thousands of songs, now people would go suing every song that uses the same notes?... this is stupid, there are only 7 notes. of course there will be thousands of similar songs.

[PihaSandDunes]

That's actually kind of mesmerizing. The kids voices have a haunting quality. This segment is better than in the original. Good work.

[analyzingfunny]

But that was not worth 65% of the song!

[foxmass58]

@analyzingfunny, I agree...NOT worth 65% of the all-time proceeds. last I read 5% was the number decreed by the judge...but then again 5% of how much? Greg Ham may have to sell his home to cough up his share. I trust that the big shots at Larrikin are proud of themselves.

[rjherie]

PERFECT sync. Did you timestretch the "kookaburra" recording to get it sync with "Down Under?"

[foxmass58]

Hello rj, the answer to your astute query is Yes, with AUDACITY, and also tweaked the pitch of the kookaburra sound clip. I love that program and it works with WINDOWS 7.

[themooddisorders]

this seems like a tribute to the aussie homeland more than anything

[VonFisch1]

@themooddisorders I agree. I mean, they "come from a land down under" so they probably thought this was, indeed, a tribute to that.

Funny, Happy Birthday is probably sung the most in the U.S. and that's copyrighted, too.

[sirgarence]

Very good editing! I see your Movie Maker skills are much more advanced than mine :-)

[foxmass58]

@sirgarence, thank you for that tip o' the cap. I offer one back to you for your cutting and splicing skill.

[ldepaoli]

I've heard worse plagiarism than this. They needed a better lawyer.

[spudchabaz]

@ldepaoli No kidding. The song is over 70 years old as well.....Let's just call it a traditional.

[leslyerosin]

ummmm, the rappers do have to pay for sampling. But I do agree it"s a stupid lawsuit.

[evenayr]

8 bars does not a song make... This should have been thrown out. It's common in many forms of improvisational music to quote or cliche another song. Can you imagine if Snoop Dogg had to pay royalties for all the samples he uses, or Satchmo for that matter. What a pathetically stupid lawsuit, can't believe the judge awarded anything.

[frankovich213]

@evenayr Snoop Dogg does have to pay royalties for all the samples he uses you twat. I agree with you on this lawsuit but come on man.

I'm a beatmaker myself and have had to get many samples cleared for use. This costs money it's not free.

[LordInksworth]

Have a look at the Men At Work video for Down Under. Look at the flute player. Whenn he plays the parts where the melody EXACTLY COPIES the parts of the Kookaburra song (ie "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" and "merry merry king of the bush is he") nnotice where the flute player plays these melodies: Where is he? HE'S SITTING IN AN OLD GUM TREE, way up there in the branches, playing the famous melody. They KNEW what it was but didn't imagine it could one day spell trouble for them.

[cottoc55]

@LordInksworth , You are sooo right!! I never thought of that until I saw the video just now!!!

[frankovich213]

@LordInksworth lol Actually he's sitting in a Mangrove not a Gum tree, quite a big difference but yeah you're probably right.

I think they thought it was an old folk tune from the public domain and probably didn't even know it was copyrighted. It is after all, a nusery rhyme.

[snorkel8truck]

I guess the Judge musta heard this too.... too bad for M@work.

[SnuffyDumps]

interesting...