well, as a casual singer who does not 'compete', it has bemused me for quite awhile...I know songs which I 'discovered' and was the first to sing in my 'group'...but if they were decent songs, some of the better, for want of a better term "vacuumers" of songs, eventually discovered them and added them to their growing repertoire....then, if I ever did the song again, someone would usually say, "oh, 'so-and-so' does that", with the implication that 'so-and-so's version is the accepted one in these here parts, podner, and that I ought perhaps to stick to the few little items that have been identified as 'mine' ,*grin*.

I have never been seriously maligned for taking someone's song, because I am not serious competition, but I sure see some interesting elbowing go on when a song new to the 'group' arrives and much care taken about when a song is done.

Because I am in an area where there are a number of excellent singers with LARGE repertoires, it is really difficult in a large gathering to sing ANY song which is not known by several of them...I do know, however, of two or three songs of 'mine' which others know, but don't sing when I am around....which strikes me as a bit silly, but then, lots of the dynamics of social groups is a bit silly when you look hard at them, hmmmm???