This article was found on the legal section of the Billboard Biz website. In the story the Australian group Men at Work have been found to have infringed on the copyright of a camping song created in 1930 within the riff of their extremely popular song “Down Under” What I find to be most interesting is the timing of this infringement suit. The Men At Work song was released in both 1979 and 1981. But the suit against them was not filed until 2008. I wonder what exactly took so long for the suit to be filed. Why did the Plaintiff wait so long? I think that the decision may have been influenced by the performance of the song at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The Plaintiff is arguing that the damages equates to between 40% and 60% of royalties accrued by Men At Work for “Down Under.” Maybe I am still not clear on how the damages awards are calculated but I definitely do not understand how that large of an amount should be awarded for infringing the copyright on a campfire song–how exactly was the song damaged?
Read the entire article here:
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i9f46c57380aa314f01b4f4dbd0094105>
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I am having trouble seeing the link.
Can you please recheck if the link is correct?