Les, your point may be streteched, but it is valid.    I think the question becomes who owns the footage LEGALLY.   In the case of Lomax, I believe the ownership is not in question - the foundation has the rights to this material. The John Wayne footage/image has a "owner" that acts in the interest of the Wayne family. THEY approved the beer commercial. I doubt if they would approve of the Duke's image in a XXX film, and I doubt that the Lomax Foundation would grant permission for a XXX film to use Riddle's. However, I do see your point - the artist doesn't have a say anymore and it is in the hands of the "owner".   If Riddle were with us, I would hazard a guess that she would have a say.

Of course this opens up a whole new can of worms in regards to ethics and the legalities of "owning" a performance.

Les, if that youngster goes back and is disapointed by the "out of meter" recordings, how is that the fault of the "new" producer? That youngster probably would never have gone back.    Yes, I do see your point about the onus being on the performer, but in this case the performer is the producer, not Riddle.

Again, let's not jump to conclusions as to who is making $$$ off of this. The Lomax organization has shown themselves to be fair in giving artists their dues in recent years (see the stories about "O'Brother") and I don't think any of the original artists will be taken advantage of. Of course that is my opinion, but lets wait until we get all the facts and hear the recording.

One last point about "out of meter" recordings.   Don't forget that many of these recordings were made on wire recorders or disc recorders.   This technology was susceptible to a number of problems.   If you are like me, you probably had your first taste of the old silent films by watching television broadcasts in the 50's and 60's.   You probably remember the jerky motion and the sped up action.   The original films, in many cases, were shot with hand cranked cameras and shown at different projection speeds. Yet for many of us, we will always picture Charlie Chaplin with an off-speed image.