That’s the whole point of the license - it isn’t public property. It is owned by one entity and licensed to others, based on their proposed use of it.

The flag of a country is, generally, public property.

Someone would.

If some neo-Nazi group used “That’ll Be The Day” over images of a Jewish president, I think Buddy Holly’s wife would have an issue with that.

(Not that Universal, who owns the recording, or Paul McCartney, who owns the publishing would ever allow that.)

The solution to that is to help composers retain publishing rights, not open the gates for everyone to do whatever they want as long as the composer gets paid.

Songwriters frequently have their own publishing company. They share some of the money to run it, but retain control.

The license allows creators (or their publishers, whether they are in control of that or not) control over their work and who it is associated with.

I wouldn’t want my work to be freely available to whatever random person wants to incorporate it into theirs, even if they are sharing revenue. I want to know it isn’t being tied to a person or message I dislike.

Writing music and incorporating a piece of someone else’s composition doesn’t mean you’re using a recording at all.

He had very famously been sued (and lost) over Come Together. Part of the settlement was recording some Chuck Berry songs, which ultimately became the Rock and Roll album.

(I’m not sure how he was the one in court when Come Together, like everything else, was a Lennon-McCartney credit.)

Ground bees are dangerous.

Paul and Joe played on a Ringo single a couple years ago, which was a cover of one of John’s final songs.