“Of course, a dedication is not the same as a gift because gift cannot be taken back. But I believe a gift can also be taken back in some rare cases. Suppose a boyfriend gives a diamond ring to his girlfriend and the next day somehow he finds that she is involved with some other guy. Then, he has every right to ask for the return of the ring.
I don't find much difference between a dedication and a gift with respect to the ease with which it may be taken back.
Before the advent of politically correct terms, the term in the US for a taker backer of gifts was "Indian give," which supposedly had some historical significance - I don't remember what.
Are you comparing assigning the property to a son with a gift?
Yes. Or it may be a bequeathal.
<<The Boston Symphony comissioned the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra. They didn't buy it. They paid him to write it.>>
If they paid him to write it, then this means they bought some of the rights from Bartok Concerto beforehand?
Yes. I'm not sure of the details. Of course they gave the premire performance.
<< Michael Jackson at one time bought the rights to all of the Beatles' songs.>>
Was the the required in ''all of the Beatles' songs''?
Alternate forms are possible. the rights to all Beatles songs In this case, I'd take "Beatles" as an adjective.
In the previous example, with a small "t" on "the," I'd take "Beatles' " as a possessive adjective.
It gets messy, because the name of the band is really "The Beatles."
When you use "all of," a "the" is usually required. "I ate all of the sandwiches." You can't say, "I ate all of sandwiches."
But it would be stupid to say, "the rights to all of the The Beatles['] songs." (I show the appostrophe as optional here because we do or don't use the possessive somewhat indiscriminately in these cases.)
<< Are you going to call up a radio disk jockey program and request a song, dedicating it to someone?
In these cases, "dedicate" is the expression that is commonly used. I think it would be considered correct regardless of who owns the rights to the song. >>
I found no such definition which permitted to use dedicate for something whose rights you do not own.
I think I've heard of professional tennis players dedicating their win or their performance in a particular match to someone. (I don't think the prize money is included. 
, but it could be.)
In the case of requesting a dedication for the broadcast of a single song, this is an old tradition, and I'm sure no ownership rights apply. The broadcastor pays any fees involved.
ASCAP and BMI and possibly other entities deal with collecting the performance fees for their members. At one time there was a big flap because Irving Berlin insisted on collecting a fee every time the Boy Scouts sang God Bless America around a campfire.”