{"id":278,"date":"2010-02-03T22:33:27","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T06:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/?p=278"},"modified":"2012-11-09T15:13:36","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T23:13:36","slug":"ear-we-go-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/ear-we-go-again\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Ear&#8221; We Go Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\nNow this one baffles me somewhat.\u00a0 Quoting from the Associated Press:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Australian band <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Men at Work\" rel=\"lastfm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Men%2Bat%2BWork\">Men at Work<\/a> copied a well-known children&#8217;s campfire song for the flute melody in its 1980s hit &#8220;<a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Down Under (song)\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Down_Under_%28song%29\">Down Under<\/a>&#8221; and owes the owner years of royalties, a court ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\">&#8220;<a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Kookaburra (song)\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kookaburra_%28song%29\">Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree<\/a>&#8221; was written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition, and the song has been a favorite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img\" style=\"margin: 1em; display: block;\">\n<div>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 136px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Men%2Bat%2BWork\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Men at Work\" src=\"http:\/\/userserve-ak.last.fm\/serve\/126\/8033675.jpg\" alt=\"Men at Work\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Men%2Bat%2BWork\">Men at Work<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lastfm.com\">last.fm<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\">You can read the rest of the article <a href=\"http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/A\/AS_AUSTRALIA_MEN_AT_WORK?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2010-02-04-00-49-36\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\">I didn&#8217;t have to listen to &#8220;Down Under&#8221; to remember the flute part.\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t know the song (you DON&#8217;T know the song??) you can have a listen below.\u00a0 The flute part appears several times in the song.\u00a0 Yes, it&#8217;s the same melody over a different <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Chord progression\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chord_progression\">chord progression<\/a>.\u00a0 I never made the connection before, however, and I know both songs.<\/p>\n<p>\n<center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>What I find most baffling is that the whole thing is coming out just now, even though &#8220;Down Under&#8221; was released in 1981, 29 years ago.\u00a0 Did it take 29 years to get to court?\u00a0 The Australian teacher who wrote &#8220;Kookaburra&#8221; 70 years ago died in 1988, and her <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Publishing\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Publishing\">publishing company<\/a> owns the copyright to the song.\u00a0 So it&#8217;s not even that this settlement will benefit her family, as copyright usually reverts to the estate of a songwriter for a period of time after their death;\u00a0 only the publishing company will make money.  Not only that, but when they go back to court in April to decide compensation, the publishers are going to demand up to 60% of the back royalties.\u00a0 Does 4-bar flute part in a 4 minute song deserve 60% of the royalties?\u00a0 It all seems frivolous and greedy to me.  I don&#8217;t know&#8230;I&#8217;d feel better if it was the teacher or her family that was going to get the money.  <em>IJ<\/em><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"340\" height=\"285\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/DNT7uZf7lew&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xe1600f&amp;color2=0xfebd01&amp;border=1\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"340\" height=\"285\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/l1Uq6AB_4hM&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xe1600f&amp;color2=0xfebd01&amp;border=1\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles by Zemanta<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/r.zemanta.com\/?u=http%3A\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/go\/rss\/-\/1\/hi\/entertainment\/8497433.stm&amp;a=12546451&amp;rid=60e7e045-c7a7-4827-9016-dc37f839b97d&amp;e=fca7e56778bca09bdd3ca9afff104259\">Men At Work lose plagiarism case<\/a> (news.bbc.co.uk)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/r.zemanta.com\/?u=http%3A\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/35227069\/ns\/entertainment-music\/&amp;a=12546957&amp;rid=60e7e045-c7a7-4827-9016-dc37f839b97d&amp;e=9db21518c90b91e3883fcbc01d51856f\">Court: &#8217;80s hit &#8216;Down Under&#8217; copies kids&#8217; song<\/a> (msnbc.msn.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/entertainment\/2010975272_apasaustraliamenatwork.html?syndication=rss\">Court says &#8217;80s hit `Down Under&#8217; copies kids&#8217; song<\/a> (seattletimes.nwsource.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/60e7e045-c7a7-4827-9016-dc37f839b97d\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?x-id=60e7e045-c7a7-4827-9016-dc37f839b97d\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related pretty-attribution\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"gsWidget\"><input id=\"gsPlaylistID\" name=\"gsPlaylistID\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"24598886\" \/><\/div>\n<div id=\"gsWidget\"><input id=\"gsPlaylistID\" name=\"gsPlaylistID\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"24615135\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now this one baffles me somewhat.\u00a0 Quoting from the Associated Press: &#8220;Australian band Men at Work copied a well-known children&#8217;s campfire song for the flute melody in its 1980s hit &#8220;Down Under&#8221; and owes the owner years of royalties, a court ruled Thursday. &#8220;Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree&#8221; was written more than 70 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,6],"tags":[186,185,187,184,191,188,189,190],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-opinion","tag-australia","tag-down-under","tag-girl-guide","tag-kookaburra","tag-marion-sinclair","tag-men-at-work","tag-new-zealand","tag-publishing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prwoq-4u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}