Comments on: Kookaburra sits on his royal-tee

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:43:43 +0000

Gee, I live in the US and I remember being taught that song when I was in elementary school.

By: James Woodruff

James Woodruff — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:42:03 +0000

Crikey!

By: kimsch

kimsch — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:50:09 +0000

You could sing the words “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree” to the flute riff, because the the number of syllables and the number of notes match, but the actual notes of the flute riff don’t match the actual notes of Kookaburra.

I’ve known the Kookaburra song since I was a child, and I was almost an adult when Land Down Under came out. I have never, until this story, associated Land Down Under with Kookaburra.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:42:49 +0000

Call me crazy, but I just don’t hear it and I am really good at picking out tunes. They are similar, but not the same. Stupid decision, IMO.

By: Dirk D

Dirk D — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:12:37 +0000

“The song Down Under came out in 1981 and they are just now getting a judge to rule on the copyright issue?”

Nobody even knew that there was any issue until a quiz show asked a question about the song asking ” what childrens’ song melody is Down Under based on” (or something to that effect).

By: mojo

mojo — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:40:54 +0000

They’re also apparently trying to recover from the band only. What, the record company didn’t profit from the song?

By: Carl Starrett

Carl Starrett — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:03:58 +0000

The song Down Under came out in 1981 and they are just now getting a judge to rule on the copyright issue?

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:30:45 +0000

I guess the only safe thing to do from now on to prevent any possibility of a copyright violation is to not play music in any movie. And don’t even think about using silence. That has been copyrighted by John Cage.