I think treating songs as property can easily become a kind of betrayal of the tradition in which the songs we sing today have their roots.

When it comes to people making large sums of money out of recording or performing songs and tunes made up by living people, or songs and tunes derived directly from these, it's right that the originators should have a share of that money; and in many cases it's only good manners to give the name of the person who wrote a song or tune, when we perform it.

But that's as far as it should go, and it's not that far.