Men At Work, earlier this year, were ordered to pay royalties to the children’s song.
A court decision in February, ruled that Men At Work’s Down Under reproduced a substantial part of folk standard Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, but earlier this week Justice Jacobson said that Colin Hay (Men At Work), co-songwriter Ron Strykert and label EMI would have to pay five percent of royalties to Larrikin Publishing, who bought the rights to the children’s song in 1990 for a mere $6100.
While this is still likely to yield a six-figure sum, it is a small price to pay in comparison to the 40-60 percent claimed by Larrikin- a cash grab, which Justic Jacobson described as ‘overreaching, excessive and in my view unrealistic,’ (according to a report in The Age).
