Fair point about the friendliness on this subject and the rationale for the lack of it, Diane.
I still think downloads are the way to go if poverty is part of the reason given for sitting on all this music. It's cheap to do, it gets it out there for people like me to buy and it makes money for the artists and for the owners of the recordings. A genuine 'no losers' situation, in fact.
I suspect on some level I'm being naieve here though. I can't be the first person to suggest this solution...