What is the REAL reason why I can get Beatles songs from iTunes or Yahoo Music?
Globe307 is mostly correct; however Wacko Jacko has had to sell the majority stake in the publishing to Sony to fuel his ‘erratic’ lifestyle. McCartney actually owns the publishing to some of the very early Beatles songs, such as “Love Me Do”, since they were published to different companies before the band created their own publishing company, Northern Songs. He’s been able to quietly buy them up over the years. Also many of Harrison’s and Starr’s songs (“Something” & “Octopus’s Garden” for example) are owned by their own companies, and thus not controlled by Sony/MJ. The only songs totally owned by all four Beatles (and/or estates) are “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” from the 1996 ‘Anthology’ project.