This week’s friday foto finder theme is “perch .” I had a few candidates (mostly other birds) picked out last night, but this guy popped up as a winner due to his appearance in a conversation I had during my lab meeting. Okay, not this guy. But a kookaburra. Or at least a song about a kookaburra.
I didn’t hear about it when it happened, but apparently Men at Work was sued a few years ago for copyright infringement for their song Down Under. Not the whole song, but a few notes of the song. There’s a flute solo that plays a few notes from the song “Kookaburra,” the Australian popular folk song. It was actually written in 1932, and currently the rights are owned by a now unpopular record company. Men at Work lost the lawsuit, and now must pay a share of their royalties for the song to the record company.
This kookaburra sits in cage in a zoo, and does not collect any royalties from either song.
To see what other photos are perched for this week’s friday foto finder, and/or to share your own, head down under to the fff blog.
collecting tokens 
Yes – those few notes were something we all grew up with – “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree”. Sometime soon I expect one of the music conglomerates to copyright each and every individual note on the scale. Then we will see the stupidity of those laws. How often did the great composers reference other composers work or even folk songs? Now modern creators of art or music or literature cannot build on what others have left behind.
Sorry about the rant but this is one of my pet hates! Unlike your Kookaburra which is beautiful. I often have one drop in on my balcony of a morning just to survey the world. :)
I stayed many a might at the Kookaburra Inn in Brisbane with Friedrich. We never saw one perching though.. I am glad you did.