Men At Work's 80s hit 'Down Under' is the subject of a rather late in the day copyright dispute in Australia over allegations the song includes an unlicensed segment from the children's nursery rhyme 'Kookaburra'.
The publishing company who owns 'Kookaburra', which was written in the 1930s by Australian music teacher Marion Sinclair, claims a 'flute riff' from the nursery song appears in the global pop hit. Larrikin, a division of UK-based Music Sales Group, are therefore suing the song's songwriters, Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, their publishers EMI and the label that released the song SonyBMG, claiming they are due a cut of any publishing royalties generated by the song, which will be rather a lot.
SonyBMG have responded by saying this is a publishing dispute and shouldn't affect them, because their labels have always got the appropriate licences before releasing the song. EMI Music Publishing are yet to comment.
If you're wondering why it's taken until now for Larrikin to make their claim, well, that's quite an amusing story. A question was asked on an Australian TV quiz show to the effect "What children's song is contained in the song 'Down Under?'" It was only after that question was featured that Larrikin became aware a bit of one of their songs seemingly appeared in this 80s hit.