Stilly River sage,

actually, the bit from the News Scotsman is silly. In general in cases like this, news outlets tend to take an anti-litigation stance: "this was a frivolous lawsuit! Now any bozo can make millions by doing this." This is rarely actually the case, however.

This particular ruling does NOT mean that any Tom, Dick and Harry could make slight alterations to music and then get lots of royalties. The nub of the issue is that Ex Cathedra worked directly with Sawkins, and indisputably used HIS versions of the works. Tom, Dick and Harry would have to wait until

1) their work was published
2) it was recorded
3) the recording earned enough for them to receive royalties.

Then, of course, royalties on a typical early music recording wouldn't amount to much.

The large ruling against Hyperion, as the first article made clear, went mainly to pay Sawkins' legal fees. If Hyperion had simply signed a contract with Sawkins, he wouldn't have gotten much.

And random Toms, Dicks and Harrys would get even less. Probably nothing since their redactions would not become prominent enough to be used by major recording artists.