Men At Work copyright case - PROTEST NOW!

IMPORTANT - This article is now WAY out of date.

Our article 'Copyright case - songwriters to lose $MILLIONS!' has caused a bit of a stir, generating a mass of comments.

Almost all comments strongly support the writers of the song Down Under against the claims of Larrikin Music, which is looking to grab 40-60% of the song's earnings in a copyright infringement claim.

But commenting isn't going to get us anywhere.

PROTEST IS!

Well perhaps.

This is what we are going to do...

Instead of commenting on the case, we would like you to write and record a song.

Your song should a) express your opinions on the case, and b) contain the same quote from the Kookaburra song that can be heard in Down Under.

Your song may mention Down Under, Men at Work, Larrikin Music and Marion Sinclair, and of course kookaburras and gum trees.

Your song MUST NOT infringe Men At Work's copyright, and must not quote any more of the Kookaburra song than is included in Down Under.

Encode your song into AAC or MP3 and email it to newsletter@recordproducer.com. Don't forget to tell us the title and the name(s) of the writer(s).

We will publish every entry we receive in RecordProducer.com

We will also send the songs to major national newspapers and broadcasters in the USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and of course Australia.

Oh, and Larrikin Music and Men At Work too!

We may also consider putting the songs on YouTube, so if you can send a photo of yourself, that will help.

Bear in mind that you may be exposing yourself to legal risk in doing this. We will not be able to help you or pay any damages for you. The decision to send us a song is entirely your responsibility.

Having said that, we regard this exercise as fair comment, and to be able to make a point it will be necessary to quote the Kookaburra song.

We will offer to Larrikin Music, at their request, the same percentage of advertising revenue we receive that is directly attributable to publication of these songs in Audio Masterclass as they are awarded in respect of the Men At Work case.

So get to work you men, and women... the closing date for entries is Thursday next week (February 25, 2010).

By the way, we're not anti-copyright here. We just want to see a sense of proportion applied.

P.S. If anyone is an expert in Australian law and can tell us where we can find out the date of the hearing to determine the amount of damages to be paid to Larrikin music, we would be very pleased to hear.