"then we need to accept that anyone can use it."
Absolutely Steve - the copyrighting of 'arrangements' needs to be nipped in the bud too - all folk songs are "arrangements" because of the folk process
I've always toyed with the idea of a fund being set up that can be donated to by singers recording traditional songs commercially and ploughed into the research and preservation of these songs - not compulsary - maybe, but a show of gratitude to those who gave us our songs
Organisation like the National Sound Archive ans EFDSS are always (justifiably) pleading poverty when they are asked to do something
Jim