My reaction is "yawn........" No one today writes contra or square dances with the hope of earning any money. However, dance authors (i) do want to see themselves acknowledged if their dance sequence is reproduced or passed along, and (ii) would be be justifiably upset if used in a for-profit manner without the author's permission. If anyone tried to violate (ii) the dance community is closely knit enough to insure that person would be criticized. And the offender would not be earning much money anyway.
However, then there is the Sixto Rodriguez phenomenon. Mr Rodriguez was an unsuccessful song writer in the US whose music, unbeknownst to him, became wildly popular in South Africa, for which he received not royalties. Some years later, two South Africans found Mr Rodriguez in Detroit, and brought him to South Africa to perform several sold out concerts. Type Sixto Rodriguez into a search engine or find the documentary movie "Sugar Man" to learn more. In any case I could conjure an unlikely scenario of a contra dance craze starting in some distant nation, and someone surreptitiously publishing a booklet of contra dance sequences without authors' permission for publication in the newly crazed nation. But the internet would likely expose such a scheme Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217-239-5844
