If this does explode into a lawsuit, then an auction of even the most beautiful stuff wouldn't even pay for a lawyer to have even the first meeting with the litigants to discuss the matter, much less the litigation itself. Believe me, I know. Good lawyers in this industry can charge over $400 an hour just to listen to you tell them your sad story over the phone!

I completely agree with Ted, but I know how easy it would be for these people to answer our request for the list of songs they think are in violation: all they have to do is copy and paste our entire song list and send it back, which puts the ball back in our court to answer for each song.

Max, the Mudcat's greatest strength is that it is not alone in cyber space. Mudcat has website "cousins" in every other type of music, drama (all those Shakespeare sites, etc), poetry and prose, and every one of them faces this same issue. I think the most cost-effective (and time-saving) approach is to connect with as many of them as possible. If even a single one of them has learned how to shoo away these pests, I'll bet that they'd be delighted to tell us how, in lavish detail.

Sorry for the loud typing, but it's probably the smartest thing we can do, and the sooner, the better.