Copyright says who has the right to the song, payment or not - and as Morwen notes, if there is a copyright then there is going to be a fee - and the folk process is something I always understood to take place on songs in existence before the legal issue of ownership and copyright comes into it. Isn't that what we're talking about? The organic shift in songs and lyrics from a time when ownership was forgotten and they belong to the folk to sing and change as the interpretations and conditions shift?

SRS