"The authors of this article have elected, in the interests of open dissemination of scholarly work, to provide this article to you in open access format. This means that, in accordance with the principles of
the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/), you may freely copy and redistribute this article provided you correctly acknowledge its authors and source, and do not alter its contents."
Thanks John - I'll read it through when I have enough time to give it the attention it appears to deserve.
A quick observation without pre-judging what John Engenes has to say.
I would be interested to hear your views on whether the internet has the same effect on say folk-song as print did when literacy became not just available but generally accepted; that of fixing the text so it remained unaltered. This was pretty much what we found in Ireland, especially during the time we spent with Mikeen McCarthy, the Kerry ballad seller (who was himself semi literate).
I was taken with the 'copyright' warning at the bottom of your link; applied to songs it would scupper any chance of them entering into any oral tradition - just a thought!
Best,
Jim Carroll

"The authors of this article have elected, in the interests of open dissemination of scholarly work, to provide this article to you in open
access format. This means that, in accordance with the principles of
the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/), you may freely copy and redistribute this article provided you correctly acknowledge its authors and source, and do not alter its contents."