Copyright exists in law. The PRS are merely a collection and distribution agency, tasked to handle these activities on behalf of members. You don't have to be a member to police your copyright - you can always make your own private arrangements - with every outlet in the world! What I meant was that PRS is owned by its members (I guess even a quango is ulimately accountable to the public in a free democracy - but that's a moot point), and to a certain extent we can, and do, agitate for changes.

You'd have to define 'folk' if you wanted exemptions for folky activities - 'traditional' already has a clear definition. You could prevent people from registering arrangements if enough people agreed, and many would. The trouble is, it would prevent arrangements of other out of copyright material, not just traditional folk songs. There is a separate debate on this re Creative Commons Licences.

Some argue that it would be better if no royalties were ever collected on copyright-free music, and some festivals which favour traditional material have argued that they should not need a licence. PRS have issued a cheaper festival tarrif as a compromise, but not everyone is happy about it, and I don't really know enough to comment.

Sorry, I thought Russ was suggesting it might be more important to be known than to be paid.