3 Count: Men at Play

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1: Men At Work Ordered to Pay Song Royalties

The Australian group Men at Work, which was recently sued by Larrikin Music, the owners of the copyright to “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” have escaped their copyright case relatively lightly. Larrikin Music had sued the band seeking some 60% of the royalties in the band’s hit “Down Under” claiming that a riff from the song was lifted from the classic Australian folk song. The judge agreed with Larrikin but set the royalties at 5%, though no indication was given about how much money that actually is.

2: ‘Nash Bridges’ Star Suing Production Company

Next up today, Don Johnson, the star and creator of the hit TV show “Nash Bridges” is suing the show’s production company, Rysher Entertainment, saying that he has been shorted on royalties and other payments. Rysher claims that the show was extremely expensive to make and has not yet turned a profit, despite being off the air for almost a decade. Johnson, who is suing through his production company, is claiming he is owed millions in back royalties.

3: New copyright Lawsuit Involves Creative Commons

Finally today, Creative Commons Licenses may be getting another test in court as Gatehouse Media, publishers of the Rockford Register Star, have sued a company selling reprints of Register Star content, content that is licensed under a non-commercial CC license. However, in addition to the usual spate of claims, the company is also suing for breach of contract, attempting to establish CC as a contract as well.

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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