I agree. Hank Williams senior has been dead for over fifty years. Nobody associated with Williams creation of those songs is still alive. The people making money off of them now are suits who had nothing to do with the creation of the work.
After a period of time, artwork becomes part of the cultural fabric. Huckleberry Finn, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, The Jungle Books are all public domain, now, which is as it should be. The same thing should happen with music.
Now the Indians are dressing up like Cowboys
And the Cowboys are putting leather and turquoise on
And the music is sold by lawyers,
and the fools who fiddle in the middle of the station are gone.
I'm mostly interested in songs from the 60's and download the ones I can legally from the Music Match store. I still can't figure out why only some songs from that era are available. Wouldn't the labels make more money if they made them all available instead of only a small fraction? The RIAA business model makes no sense.