Only just caught up with this thread as I've not had access to a computer for a while.

Back in the '70s, a recording was made of singing sessions in the Padstow area over a few days around Mayday. It was known by the participants of said singing sessions that they were being recorded. It was not that long since reasonable quality portable cassette tape recorders had become widely available, and recordings were quite commonly made. A while later, these recordings were released commercially under the name 'Singing Out the Oss'. All those who led songs (mostly revival singers) were identifiable, though not credited, and action was taken to stop sales of the tape and for the master tape to be destroyed. In the process, it was discovered that it was a criminal, not civil, offence to sell such a tape without the written permission of every single performer on that tape. One of the performers was a solicitor, and he sorted the whole thing out without requiring any payment. Knowing how much time he had to spend on it, I am certain that most, if not all, source singers would not have been able to afford to engage a solicitor to do the same.

This has nothing to do with whether or not the songs themselves were copyright, but purely about the commercial exploitation of the singers' performances. How much money could be made from the release of such a recording is neither here nor there. It is a criminal offence, or at least it was back then, and I doubt that that situation has changed.

Barbara