I think GUEST is mistaking Martin's intentions in pressing for a settlement from Paul Simon. The point of the Carthy/Simon suit was not that Simon should have paid Martin to use the song, it's the opposite. It's that no-one should have had to pay anyone. But Simon fixed it so that he got paid every time other people sang it. By copyrighting the song, Simon sucked up fees from hundreds of people who played and recorded it after him. Martin felt this wasn't fair, since he had taught Simon the song for free.

BTW, Martin and Paul Simon have sinced buried the hatchet and are on good terms again. Let's not foment more discord than we need to.

I kind of agree with everyone, though, that copyright is not made for folklore. I wish there were an honor system whereby when, say, Michael Nyman writes a theme for "The Piano" which is basically just a version of "Gloomy Winter's Noo Awa'," he pays a fee to an organization that does benefit Scottish folk music. Of course, if I said "The School of Scottish Studies," one GUEST would say "that's just a bunch of academics!" and if I said "The Celtic Connections Festival" another would say "That's just a bunch of middlemen and promoters!" and if I said "The Musician's Union" another would say "AAAARRRGGGHHH!" And rightly so. It's just hard to figure out who should get the dough....