In the digital age of music sharing it may not seem like publishing rights are as important as before, but these rights may become more vital as creativity is easily shared over the net, music collaboration becomes ubiquitous and ownership tracking of such music is refined.
There are no clear answers here – every band in the world seems to have a different way to allocate these rights to the member(s) of their band who write the songs. Nevertheless, below are some links that may help educate you as your band works on these issues.
http://www.bayofpigs.com/musmagfeb98.html
http://iblsjournal.typepad.com/illinois_business_law_soc/2007/10/a-recent-issue-.html
Comments regarding these matters are encouraged! Good luck!!

Nice article. Here is another, short merch table related piece: http://howtorunaband.com/20...