Roger,
a bureaucracy that cannot even trace its own doings is plain pathetic. Anyway, that would make it harder to police the licensing and eventually invalidate it for the same reason.

Sharyn,
Like in everything else, happiness is always relative to expectations... I too have heard some versions of my songs that I don't particularly like, but hey, I take the rough with the smooth.

Perhaps the difference in our approaches might stem from our reasons for songwriting in the first place. In my case, I do it to leave a "mark" behind, to make some ripples in the ether that will outlast my earthly body; and to help others find voice for their feelings through my songs. Indeed, I generally try to leave "hooks" for others to latch on, or change the melody slightly in the chorus to make it easier to learn for others (not in the verse, there I do just as I like).

Given those objectives, it is then natural to let the songs go once created, and let people hold them, touch them, change them, cuddle and abuse them as they will, rather than put them in glass cages to remain unmolested for ever. I expect some of the treatment to be good, and some bad. I wince at the bad and marvel at the good, but every time someone sings one of them I know I am one step closer to my objective.