Does this sound like a children’s campfire song?

Men at Work – Business As Usual (1981)

1) Who Can It Be Now
2) I Can See It In Your Eyes
3) Down Under
4) Underground
5) Helpless Automation
6) People Just Love To Play With Words
7) Be Good Johnny
Touching The Untouchables
9) Catch A Star
10) Down By The Sea

Court orders Men at Work to hand over 5% of Down Under royalties
Judge had previously ruled hit’s distinctive flute riff was copied from a children’s campfire song

Kristen Gelineau, Sydney, Australia
Globe and Mail
Tuesday, 6 July 2010

A judge ordered Australian band Men at Work on Tuesday to hand over a portion of the royalties from their 1980s hit Down Under, after previously ruling its distinctive flute riff was copied from a children’s campfire song.

But the penalty – 5 per cent of the song’s royalties – was far less than the 60 per cent sought by publishing company Larrikin Music, which holds the copyright for the song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.

Kookaburra was written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition, and the song about the native Australian bird has been a favourite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada.

Sinclair died in 1988, but Larrikin filed a copyright lawsuit last year. In February, Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson ruled Men at Work had copied their song’s signature flute melody from Kookaburra.

On Tuesday, Jacobson ordered Men at Work’s recording company, EMI Songs Australia, and Down Under songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, to pay 5 per cent of royalties earned from the song since 2002 and from its future earnings. A statute of limitations restricted Larrikin from seeking royalties earned before 2002.

The court didn’t specify what the 5 per cent penalty translates to in dollars.

“I consider the figures put forward by Larrikin to be excessive, overreaching and unrealistic,” Justice Jacobson wrote in his judgment.

Adam Simpson, Larrikin Music’s lawyer, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Hay and Strykert were not in court for the decision and couldn’t immediately be reached.

Down Under and the album it was on, Business As Usual, topped the Australian, American and British charts in early 1983. The song remains an unofficial anthem for Australia and was ranked fourth in a 2001 music industry survey of the best Australian songs. Men at Work won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.