Also, Americans have allowed historically the taking of rights from songwriters through publishers contracts that guarantee nothing in return for the rights to the songs… forever, with no way out for the songwriter even if a song never earns a cent in royalties from the publisher from a combination of double-dealing accounting and simply because the songs are really never published as promised.

Then there is the plain in the open stealing of works from authors and the public domain. Never punished at all.

Basically the music publishing business is mostly a scam supported by a weak (and contradictory to its stated goal) copyright. The law that does nothing to stop the scam.