AR--You have given us some good excercise on this one--which, even if it seems to get heated, is always appreciated--Particularly good to get people thinking about ragtime, which is such an important a part of the music that we all love and play--I don't know about Dicho (who seems to like all the same stuff I do!) but I am generally regarded as a pain in the ass--partly for wasting everyone's time with questions that no one else really cares about, partly because of my simpleminded obsession with trivial details, and partly because I never let anything go(and there is my inclination to make dry, sarcastic, and generally unappreciated remarks)--so this has been perfect for me--

One thing about Joplin, and maybe the most important thing, is that he found a simple way to use those characteristic syncopated musical ideas from African-American music in a popular music format--he made everything that came after possible--Berlin called himself a ragtime composer, and, however he may have come up with Alexander's Ragtime Band, the most important thing he learned from Joplin was how to write songs using ragtime elements--

Anyway, my last two little contribution here are that I called ASCAP. and discovered that Joplin had been dropped from their membership rolls in 1976, meaning that his works went into public domain then, and no further royalties were either collected or distributed on his works--and also that the only Olympic Records that I could find is now a Goth/Metal label--