"To me you're saying that those who DO make their living from their music, working damned hard to do so too, more often than not, aren't to even be considered in keeping the folk scene alive."
Lizzie,
Without the often nameless singers and musicians who kept the songs and music alive for generations without payment, or even without a thought of asking for a penny for their efforts, and who, more often than not, were never acknowledged for their having passed their art on, we would never have had a folk scene.
Of course people are entitled to make money out of the creations of others, that's the world we live in, but they are no special case.
When arguments like this arise, I'm reminded of the Irish Travelling man who passed on a bundle of extremely rare songs and ballads and he expressed his gratitude for somebody caring about his songs.
He died of malnutrition in a derelict house in Roscommon - one of his rarest ballads, The Well Below the Valley, (The Maid and the Palmer), was copyrighted by a well-heeled singer/musician with a marginal connection to the tradition.      
While it's true that some professional music do deserve some credit for popularising the songs, many, many more have done a great deal of damage with their efforts to turn them into commodities for a mass market.
For those of us old enough to remember, the folk song revival came like a blast of fresh air - and escape from the mundane and extremely bland stuff off the commercial shelves.
We were given access to a music that was ours to revel in and to share without commercial considerations.
The uniqueness of folk song is that it is ours, it is democratic and it is free.
Please don't try to hang a price-tag on it.
Jim Carroll