With regard to appropriating PD material, yes - that was quite common. There were some lawsuits, I believe, which the Trio settled by turning over royalties earned and changing writer credits on subsequent releases. I seem to recall that one of those suits was brought by Alan Lomax over "Tom Dooley".
One of the most blatant and acknowledged artistic "thefts" was Dave Guard taking credit for writing "Scotch and Soda". Dave readily admitted that he got that song from the parents of his one-time girlfriend, Katie Seaver (sister of baseball great, Tom Seaver) who had heard it performed by a piano player in Phoenix while on their honeymoon. But since the writer was unknown, he put his name on the song, expecting, I imagine, that the actual writer would come forward to challenge him. Never happened, and to this day, Dave is credited as the writer.
At one time I was on a hunt for the true writer of "Scotch and Soda" and I thought I'd found him in Phoenix. But it turned out to be bogus. One of the unsolved mysteries of the music biz.
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