I also spend a bit of time trying to find answers for others and have pondered Ed's question on several occasions and I reached the same conclusion as Malcolm, i.e. money may be a factor.

I can't remember replying to anybody by email as the result of a song request in Mudcat but I have done so in newsgroups and while I can see that there may be good reasons for people requesting an e-mail reply, I am quite happy to help that way if I can. If howewever, I felt that the person was just being lazy or couldn't be bothered, I would not bother replying.

Jon

PS Ed, Google has recently become my favourite search engine - I wish I knew of it earlier.