"...the industry works the way it does because that's the way industry works period. you can't separate any definition of folk music away from the rest of the music industry and try to apply different rules. where would u draw the line? no, the system is this way because that's how it evolved, via practice, market forces and case law - like anything else..."

But surely the blogger / bootlegger is a prerequisite of such capitalist functionalism? How else might we account for the continued existence of such a creature? Or else accomodate them into our 'realistic' world view?