Brezhnev, you have a point. However most of the complaints in this thread have revolved around making current albums freely available. If THTM had restricted itself to the claim it makes about making available out-of-print rarities then I think it would have been viewed rather more pragmatically.

There are two quite separate issues here. One is the availability of archive recordings. With modern technology it is now possible to publish these, but most record labels (especially small folk labels) don't have the resources to do it themselves. What you suggest is a possible solution, but would still be very demanding of time as well as money and I wonder whether it would be economically viable, and whether it is of sufficiently wide interest to attract public funding in these straitened times.

That still leaves the problem that there is some fantastic music in the archives which people understandably want to hear. Maybe there is a public-interest case which outweighs copyright, ethically if not legally, although as has been pointed out this is far from clear-cut in some cases. What I am sure of is that posting dubious-quality tracks off well-worn vinyl without even bothering to seek the consent of the rightful owner is not the best way to address this.

The other issue is that of posting copies of current albums. I don't propose to repeat the points which have already been made at length, but it should be obvious that this is quite a different matter.