Monetization of IP : This bearded, vegetarian hipster made about 600k this year for doing nothing.

This hipster musician, otherwise known as Paul McCartney, makes tons of money every year.  At last count, he makes something like 35 Million dollars a year.

Now, to complicated financial wizards sitting at a prop trading desk, that might not seam like a large sum. However, taken over the course of this Beatles's 4 decade career, it adds up to a net worth somewhere in the 800 million dollar range.

Some portion of that income comes from touring. However, a large portion of his income comes from royalties from his later Beatles, solo endeavors and Wings catalog.   McCartney is one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation, with a number of songs he has written hitting the tops of the Billboard Charts.  One of those songs you might be listing to right now. It is called "Wonderful Christmastime."

Paul is careful to retain rights in all of the work he produces. This is a by-product of being burned by his early record company EMI, which paid the Beatles a penny an album. They still got rich, but nowhere near the level they should have.

To salt the wound, EMI would eventually sell the royalty rights to the Beatles' early hits to a Sony / Michael Jackson joint venture (the catalog included  4000 other songs including hits by Bob Dylan and was bought for 47 Million dollars in the 1980's. - it was sold by Michael Jackson prior to his death for 375 Million). 

This experience, getting sharked by EMI, is probably why when McCartney came up with the idea for "Wonderful Christmastime", he retained both writing and preforming rights. As such, when a royalty check does come in, it goes straight into the no-pig based bank. By current estimates the continuous playing of "Wonderful Christmas Time" nets Paul about 600k a year, every year, since 1979.

Since Copyright in the US is Life plus 70 years, Paul's children will be having a wonderful Christmas time for the remainder of their lives.

Every so often, I meet someone who argues with me about the value of Copyright protection or the necessity to spell out with clarity who owns the rights in a particular literary or artistic endeavor. Usually they argue that the potential benefit is minuscule relative to the cost and expense of hiring someone knowledgeable to handle the matter. Alternatively, people argue that the potential awkwardness of having that conversation with band mates or collaborators is not worth the effort.  99 times out of a hundred, these people are not completely off base. Unfortunately, most copyrighted material is not worth much to anyone other than the creator.
However, it is that one-off, that one in a million occurrence which makes the entire process worth it.

No one wants to be an Ex-Beatle hawking Christmas jingles because they got hosed on their first record deal. Well, no one except Ringo.