It has come to my attention that the surviving family member of a prominent singer, now deceased, is asking other musicians not to sing songs or (strongly to the point) to pay to sing songs that were sung by the deceased, either solo or as one of a group, now all deceased. Royalties for songs one originates are due, of course; this is the inheritance a creative artist leaves. But it seems to me that even if an individual was arguably the most noted performer of a particular work, if the work is in the public domain or was created by someone else, royalties are not owed to the survivor of someone who used to perform it. (I am not talking about particular arrangements here, which is pretty hard to pursue; I am talking about any performance of a large number of songs of various origins.) I think if a survivor requested musicians to sing a particular song in someone's memory or not to sing a particular song in the survivor's presence, musicians in general would be sympathetic. I am pretty sure there is no legal basis for the claim, but what do other Mudcatters think of this? And how could this (in my opinion unreasonable) request be handled appropriately without stooping to an expensive and quite possibly ugly legal action?