There is a flaw in the copyright law. There are few original tunes.

The point is this,
in order to show legally that a song was stolen, the plaintiff has to show "access", that is the song was lifted. Muskrat (Muscat) Ramble is not that original. It's a good tune and very playable but it starts off with just two chords, a tonic and a dominant seventh. It is not a song like Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are" which is uniquely original. Any lifting of that tune would certainly generate a lawsuit.

The progression in Muskrat is traceable to other tunes. Still, Kid Ory was a great jazz influence and a wonderful musician. His work in the Hot Five and Seven attributes to his lasting contribution and he played well with Teddy Buckner at the Beverly Caverns in Los Angeles through to a ripe old age. It would have been nice for him to receive some royalties for Muskrat just because he was such an important trombone player.

I understand that he raised chickens in California prior to his being rediscovered by Orson Welles, another early jazz fan. His Creole influence in jazz is early jazz notable.