"Don't expect so."
Sorry; still apparently mistaking your drift.
Anybody who was ever paid to sing at a traditional type club did so using songs they/we got from traditional singers (thought about starting a list here, but have neither time space nor inclination.
Anybody who made an album of traditional songs... likewise.
Anybody who published a collection.....
Anybody who learned a song from that collection and then makes an album or takes a fee from a folk club......
Should they/we seek out the source singers or their heirs before we take the fee?
Are you proposing that traditional songs be removed from public domain?
No - MacColl never received a fee from Simon and Garfunkle or Bob Dylan - according to Martin Carthy, Dylan got the song from him on a visit to Britain.
As far as my knowledge of the affair stretches, the American singers who hit the jackpot with the song paid nobody, almost certainly claiming royalties on the "arranged by" basis.
As I said, to my knowledge MacColl never claimed nor took payment for any traditional song he collected, not even those he built up from virtually nothing, such as Alan Tyne of Harrow.
I know he paid singers like Caroline Hughes, I know all the traditional singers who were included in the Radio Ballads received BBC cheques and assume that those included on albums like 'Now Is The Time For Fishing' received fees from the record companies.
What's your point?
Dick G:
I don't think anybody here is trying to implicate you in Kennedy's dirty dealings, certainly not me.
For me the problem lies with the behaviour of the collector - 'the original sin.'
The distributor, publisher, revival singer bear no part of the blame for what this particular collector did to his sources or to those of us who feel that these songs are part of our heritage and belong to us all.
Jim Carroll