Aussie pop group Men at Work ripped off an Australian folk tune in their 1980s smash hit Down Under, a federal court judge has found.
Justice Peter Jacobson said the famous flute riff from the pop hit was unmistakably the same as the children's tune Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, penned more than 75 years ago by Toorak teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition.
What are your thoughts? Did they rip it off? Have your say below.
"I have come to the view that the flute riff in Down Under in the 1979 recording and 1981 recording infringes on the copyright of Kookaburra because it replicates in material form a substantial part of Ms Sinclair's 1935 work," Justice Jacobson told the court on Thursday.
The judge said publishing firm Larrikin Music, who was suing EMI and Down Under songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, had succeeded in their bid to recover unpaid royalties and losses by proving the similarities between the songs.
I didn't notice it before, the flute part is an almost exact copy. The video is so cringeworthy
