Hello there. Lots of truly superb contributions on this thread drawn from years of professional experience and research.

I know that there are lots of different and challenging views on this subject and we may never arrive at some kind of agreement.

I do wonder if too much of this debate looks introspectively at the 'romantic' ideal of the past and yet fails to consider the processes of the here and now and the potential for the future.

MaColl is quoted on this thread as saying that "..unknown singers who have helped to carry our peoples' songs across the centuries"

Bob Coltman said that "..songs pass hither and thither via heresay..like a rumour..growing (or dwindling) and changing as they move" and he also said that "tradition is a moving force onward into the future..continuous drive and initiative to learn and pass down songs..people must be song carriers or tradition fails."

Just consider the power and the impact the internet can play now and in the future on the transmission,exchange and survival of folk music.
Jim Carroll has said much on this thread about the subject of 'Community' and I agree with him, but is there not a new Community developing across the globe right under our nose?
-The community of the internet that now passes on and hands down information about folk music at lightening speed and also broadcasts and promotes events and communal gatherings of like minded people.
By this way we now form a close community and year in and year out we gather to get together, meet up and enjoy this 'family' of folk just as our ancestors did in isolated hamlets and villages.

All you have to do is to take a quick look look at the threads appearing on Mudcat today:

Requests for Origins of music/Lyrics/Tunes
Invitations and announcements about folk clubs/festivals/getaways/gigs/whats on etc etc

Surely all this is the modern equivelent of the tradition of passing on and handing down customs and practice from one generation to the next.

If you look at the future how does it alter our perspective on the past?
Surely it is a continuous stream and long may it live and prosper without all the nonsense of date boundaries,dead or still alive authors,known or unknown authors,best before and sell by dates.
We are not talking about perishable foods we are talking about creative material that will deserve to be passed on and collected by popular requestfor years and maybe decades to come.

Can we still be bound by definitions written in the 1950s' (or whenever) written in tablets of stone!

I think not. I just invite you to look more closely at the way we can put things into perspective in terms of how we think and communicate today and might do so in the future especially with all the technology to hand.