Tom Paxton, Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey are all ASCAP songwriter. Do you want to ban their music and "hit them in the pocketbook"?

And there aren't many people who perform exclusively traditional and public domain material, often, even when they claim, or believe that they do. People have a right to profit from their own creative work, and, at the very least, they have a right to choose what, when, and whether their work is performed for free.

The fact that someone feels that they are "keeping music alive" doesn't entitle them to do what they want with the artistic works of someone else.

However,the PROs concentrate on the big money stuff, broadcast, film, popular recordings, internet downloads, etc. And they don't pay much attention to live entertainment, unless it is on a big-money scale.

If someone wants to do something that is really constructive, they should sit down with ASCAP and set up a special schedule of licensing fees that are appropriate for "folk" venues.

There would be a number of songwriters who would suddenly start to get a few bucks, and a lot of folk venues who finally would have a seat at the table.

And, business being business, the PROs would start investing some of their resources in helping to build up the "live folk music venue" sector. It happens like that.