"What makes a new song a folk song?

more than anything else, I'd say it's the threat of excessively punative litigation
from the mercenary thug bounty hunter lawyers representing the 21st Cent corporate music business,
that deters a mass of folks like me from adapting current chart pop songs
and disseminating our amateurish modified versions
at the modern day 'folk clubs' of Youtube and soundcloud and suchlike...

That's what I believe stifles the living folk process
and will prevent new songs from becoming folk songs.... !!!???