Little Hawk, you make a HUGE point.

"He just had more success with the stuff he cribbed"

Simple concept, but rarely have I seen it in print. Same thing (to a certain extent) with Paul Simon. Had Scarborough Fair NOT become a huge hit, people wouldn't have been asking Martin Carthy how he "felt about the theft" for almost forty years.

Lots of copying (not all of it intentional) goes on all the time. A student of mine recorded an "original" song that I remember making up and using as an excercise in helping them learn fingerpicking. I haven't a clue whether they remember "where it came from"......now if it sold a million....and THEY got the royalties.....well, it won't, so end of story.

Rick