Woody Guthrie fans should not be suprised to find that he was a sort of early
open-source activist as well.
In June 1967, folk singer, environmentalist, and friend-o-Woody Pete Seeger, said:
"Saw this and wanted to make sure you read it. When Woody Guthrie was singing hillbilly songs on a little Los Angeles radio station in the late 1930s, he used to mail out a small mimeographed songbook to listeners who wanted the words to his songs.
"On the bottom of one page of one of the songbooks appeared the following.
'This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do. W.G.' "
(Internet sources are mixed about whether it appeared in writing or during an interview, but for sure it was 1967.)
Additionally, one of Woody's more famous photos shows him with a Gibson guitar on which is pasted a handmade(?) bill reading "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS". I wonder if the RIAA can hear the irony.
See a copy of the photo at http://www.onthepage.org/outsiders/woody/woody_guthrie.jpg