In the early Sixties, in the very middle of "The Great Folk Scare," a plethora of cheap paperback song books hit the bookstores and drugstore paperback racks with titles like "Songs for Singin'" and "Songs for Swinging Housemothers," containing songs like "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain," "Yankee Doodle," "On Top of Old Smoky," along with a whole bunch of stuff that I remember singing at Boy Scout summer camp—stuff that had been around for generations. Some of these books also contained gleanings from other collections, like "Song Fest" compiled by Dick and Beth Best, the Lomax books, Sandburg, et al.

Every damned page had a copyright notice at the bottom. Totally Bloody Bogus!!! Every flamin' one of those songs were public domain, and had been for generations.

At one point, some nineteen different individuals and music publishing companies claimed a copyright on "Greensleeves!"

I would love to see that one come to court!!

Don Firth

P. S. Yes, I am aware that if a person takes a song in the public domain and makes substantial changes in some twelve measures of the song, he can copyright that specific version of it. Or if he makes a specific arrangement of the song that differs in a substantial way from the public domain version, he can copyright his arrangement. But none of these books made any substantial changes at all. Yet, there was the copyright notice on every page.

If anyone tries to collect royalties off any song I sing that I know is in the public domain (such as "The Unquiet Grave" or "Geordie," I will haul his ass into court.