Much of this discussion reminds me of a conversation I once had with a Chicago folk disc jockey (his concept of "folk" was based mostly in singer-songwriters), He remarked to me in wonder, " I didn't know John Stewart wrote 'Jesse James'." And of course he didn't. Since the beginning of the music industry, writers have represented traditional and and other legally unprotected material as their own. I wonder how many professionals have claimed, say, "Barbara Allen" or "900 Miles."

Really, I would have thought that anybody interested in folk music would have known as much.