Kookaburra has the last laugh

The victory by Larrikin over Men at Work in their case for copyright infringement presents a significant threat to the creative process. You think I'm exaggerating? If you've ever studied art or music or if you've ever tried to create a work of art or write a song you'll know that it's difficult, if not impossible, to do something completely unique or new. One of the frustrating things about the artistic process is that everything's been done before by someone. When people try to describe an image or a body of work they'll usually make references to other images or other artists. We learn art or music by studying the works of other artists and musicians. In contemporary literature writers invite their readers to pick up references to earlier writers. Artists will always refer to their "influences" when explaining their professional practice. Art is all about appropriation. Not outright copying, but taking a bit of this and a bit of that, adding, subtracting, changing and distorting. As artists, we look at the work of others and use it to stimulate a train of thought which leads to our own work. That is the nature of art.

Now, knowing how artists and musicians work, how do you think the creative world will continue if the Larrikin case is not challenged? Will musicians have to censor themselves when creating new works? Will rock bands have to hire copyright lawyers to "legal" songs before they can be performed in public? How can artists create new works when almost every image can be compared to an earlier image to which it inevitably bears some similarity? Creative block has always been a problem for artists, musicians and writers. After the Larrikin decision, it will be that much harder for creative professionals to push through and create new work, we'll all be staring at the blank page or the blank canvas, pen or brush poised, struggling to think of a concept which is absolutely unique and which can't be attacked for being a reference to another artist or a previous song or a previous work of art.

Copyright has its place. Art should be more than just copying someone else's work. But if artists cannot borrow a motif or a phrase or an idea from what has gone before, we are heading into a period where creativity will be smothered by the threat of legal action.