Right. And you canNOT steal something that is already in the public domain, like a trad song. You can certainly use it, though.

The problem is, some stiff-necked people out there in the folk community way back then had come to the conclusion, emotionally speaking, that they "owned" the version of various trad songs which they were most familiar with....meaning, the version they first became attached to in their youth. To them, that version was the only legit version there ever was. As far as they were concerned, Bob was a scrawny little newby upstart from Minnesota with no credentials whatsoever in their divine pecking order and he was messing with what they owned.

I've got news for those people. You did not own that stuff. And of your pecking order I will say this: "everything passes, everything changes"