Manitas,

The situation is actually the reverse. A record company does not have to pay a royalty on public domain material that is not copywritten.

Artists wised up to that many years ago and began copywriting their arrangements of traditional songs, if not the songs themselves.

Fifty years ago, the Weavers were doing songs like "Follow the Drinking Gourd" that were "written" by Paul Campbell.

Paul Campbell was just a copywriting pseudonym for Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman's versions of traditional songs.

Mike Regenstreif