You have my sympathy. Basically, copyright laws are silly. For example, some laws provide copyright for the author's life plus 70 years. So say you hear a song at a session.

How do you know who wrote it?
How do you know where they are?
How do you know if and when they died?

It's true that if a song was a hit and made serious money, there will be records and a way to get permission. But if it was not, if only a few people are interested, we're screwed.

And then there's the imbalance between private effort and social cost. For example, I wrote new lyrics to an old lullaby recently. I estimate that it took me 90 minutes. Say I live another 10 years. Is it worth it for my government to spend 80 years (life plus 70) protecting that 90 minutes? No, it's not. And what if I have 20 grandchildren who inherit the asset? The situation is ridiculous.

Recently I thought I'd like to make a video of me singing "Little Drummer Boy" for my family. It took me 20 minutes of searching, and the upshot was that if I wanted permission, I had to telephone some woman in London, England. Not happening.

I wanted to get a legit copy of the "The Blue Skirt Waltz." The publisher wouldn't let anybody share it, but they wouldn't sell it either, probably figuring it wasn't worth the effort. So all that the "protection" does it kill the song. As I said, the laws are silly.