Since the verdict, Colin Hay has continued to insist that any plagiarism was wholly unintentional. He says that when the song was originally written in 1978, it did not have the musical passage in question, and that it was not until two years later, during a jam rehearsal session, that flautist Greg Ham improvised the riff, perhaps subconsciously recalling "Kookaburra". Hay has also added that Ham and the other members of the band were under the influence of marijuana during that particular rehearsal.[wikipedia]I am shocked, shocked that marijuana was used before a jam session!
What's really shocking is that it's not public domain by now.
What's really shocking is that it's not public domain by now. What matters is whether it was public domain in 1981 when the recording was released. The woman who wrote the song was still living till 1988. I'm sure that under Australian law like American law, copyrights extend for some time period beyond the death of the creator.