Half a million quid, though! What a chance for band-wagon jumpers, and legal council.
Seems to me to be well out of proportion to the offence, considering that it wouldn't be a smash hit anyway. Just the legal system looking after their own.

Glad I'm a folk singer, and don't try to make money out of music.

Wonder what the situation is for you singer-songwriters is. Apart from worrying, that is.

Every song in my Clancy Brothers Songbook is copyright, and it is nearly all traditional. Don't record their versions.