I don't know if anyone corrected a misconception and I was too lazy to go through 9 pages of ranting. Axl Rose owns the band name, Guns and Roses. But he shares copyrights with the authors who wrote it. For example, "Sweet Child of Mine" is written by both Axl and Slash. So, they both get residuals from any performance of that song, regardless of who it is, be it Sharyl Crow or Fergie from Black-eyed Peas. Or themselves. They simply pay a yearly fee to ASCAP or BMI for the use of the song in any performance, recording, or use in synchronous rights (use of music in a motion picture). Any music used on the album Chinese Democracy would have copyrights to all authors involved. For example, Dizzy Reed gets residuals from sales of the album and recorded performances, as does Axl and anyone else involved in the writing of the songs.
At one point in time, there was a lawsuit brought by Slash on copyright residuals from the back catalog and Rose and his attorney found the mistake in the documents and rectified the situation so that Slash, Duff, and whoever else, even Steven Adler, gets their fair share. What the former band members cannot do is perform or market anything as Guns and Roses without Axl's permission.
By the way, I did see the episode of TMS and it was hard to tell if they were joking because they seemed so intent on "selling" that story. I agree with others. If there was cause for a lawsuit, it would have happened back then, easy enough to prove with time stamps on recording dates in studio. A studio rents by the hour and they have to document whatever they do, in case of an audit, as well as copyright infringement claims. Like when Huey Lewis and the News sued Ray Parker for the song "Ghostbusters," which was a rip-off of "I want a new drug." The settlement is that Parker and his record company would pay copyright rights for all sales and dispplays of the movie involving the use of the song, "Ghostbusters."
