3 Count: Down Under 3x

By Jonathan Bailey • Feb 4th, 2010 • Category: 3 Count

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: iiNet Slays Hollywood in Landmark Piracy Case

First off today, Australian ISP iiNet has won their battle with Hollywood studios over their alleged liability for copyright infringement by its subscribers. The studios had sued the ISP in one of the most bizarre legal cases in recent memory but the judge ruled that, under current Australian law, the ISP has not legal liability for infringement by its users, similar to laws here in the U.S.

2: Men At Work Lose Plagiarism Case in Australia

Next up today, the Australian band Men At Work have lost their case against Larrikin Music, who had claimed that the flute riff from the famous Men At Work song “Down Under” was lifted from “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree”, written by Marion Sinclair in 1934, which they hold the rights to. The court agreed and has ordered damages to be paid though the exact amount is undetermined at this time.

3: Maori Flag Copyright Not About Money – Designer

Finally today, Linda Munn, the creator of the Maori flag is denying that she is enforcing copyright in her design for money but rather to protect the flag from exploitation. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand and Munn had created the flag as a symbol for them. She also denied that Maori Party MP Hone Harawira was earning money from the flag.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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Jonathan Bailey is The Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today, which he founded in 2005 as a way to help Webmasters going through content theft problems get accurate information and stay up to date on the rapidly-changing field. He is also a consultant to Webmasters and companies to help them devise practical content protection strategies and develop good copyright policies.
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  • Eric
    I know that the BBC article uses the term "plagiarize," but isn't that really a misuse of the term? Men-at-Work didn't try to pass the snippet off as their own work. The were deliberately using the popular song to invoke Australia. It was doing so with a copyrighted song, to be sure, but my understanding is that they were never claiming the melody to be original. Wouldn't this better be titled, " Men At Work Lose Copyright Infringement Case in Australia"?

    For my part, I'm all for "victories for the underdog," but this is a terrible decision. If this were tried in the United States, I would think this would have had a pretty strong fair use defense. It is highly transformative, using only as much as is necessary, and has no effect whatsoever on the market for the original song. It might even count as parody under the Campbell v. Acuff Rose standard, though that might be trickier...
  • Like you, I'm uneasy about calling it plagiarism. While I believe it was unattributed (I don't have the liner notes so I can't say for certain) it is a very well known melody, even I remember singing it in elementary school in the 80s, and I don't think there was any attempt to claim it as their own. At worse, it is a case of plagiarism technically, but not in spirit.

    I also largely agree that the verdict would likely be different in the U.S. if it were truly fought. The problem is that record labels here in the U.S. are hesitant to make fair use arguments because they don't want what they say to bite them later. I think the legal realities in the U.S. are different (Fair use vs. fair dealing) but I don't think the practical ones are.

    Sadly, in the U.S. this case would have likely been settled quickly for a nice sum of money...
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