Sounds to me like all these Artists and their Estates and Companies need to be FULLY INVESTIGATED for Intimidation and possible extortion, Maybe the IRS should check in to their Finances for irregularities? Any Foundations? Charity’s? Off Shore Holdings not fully accounted for??
Let's start by fixing the damn copyright laws. IN EXCHANGE for protection and unique rights to the creative works for A LIMITED TIME, the artist agrees to place the work in the public domain. That 'limited time' at the moment is the life of the artist + 70 years. Seriously. A taxpayer who is alive when a song is created, and pays for the rest of his life for that copyright and trademark office to protect that work, will have their grand children or great grand children benefit from that spending.
That HAS to stop. End the exception written to protect Mickey Mouse. Put everything 20 years or older in the public domain and restore the exchange. The taxpayer keeps their side of the deal, time that artists and authors do their share.