Heckle recalls the tourist office being inundated with people. "But there was no place to see and no one to take them around," he says. That changed over the years, and now myriad people—from taxi drivers to T-shirt vendors—trade on interest in the Beatles, not all legitimately.

When asked about his relationship with Apple Corps, Heckle speaks carefully and explains that his dealings have fallen into a kind of gray area. He keeps the company informed of his business plans but never poses any questions. The unspoken agreement is that Heckle will hear from lawyers only if there is something they don't like, usually a copyright that needs enforcing.

Barrow remembers discussing permissions with Aspinall. "Neil admitted to me, at that stage, it was easier to say no to anything because it was less time consuming," Barrow says. "He didn't want time-consuming negotiations."

But locals believe that Apple Corps, operated by the remaining Beatles with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, has been looking out for Liverpool. Paul McCartney "has been integral in repositioning the Beatles in this city," Heckle says.

In some cases, though, Apple Corps has simply not had the legal right to challenge certain uses. Hard Days Night Hotel uses pictures of the Beatles painted by a New Jersey-based artist. Unlike American law, which gives Marilyn Monroe's estate the rights to her name and certain images, under British law, photographers and artists largely keep the copyright to their works. And no one had trademarked the Beatles' song title "Hard Day's Night," so the hotel was able to use it.

Jonathan Davies, a senior executive at Wellcare Developments, which operates the hotel, says the firm keeps Apple Corps up to date on its plans but is left to wonder about the company’s specific views on commercial use of the Beatles' legacy.

"They do not acknowledge anything in writing," Davies says. "Using the deep T in the Beatles logo, they'll get upset about that. We also had some scaffolding outside [the hotel], and Apple Inc. wanted to run some ads for iPod Nano. In the end, we decided not to accept it."

Heckle says that in the past year, a number of T-shirt vendors have received cease-and-desist letters, something that was previously unheard of. Officials at the Trading Standards Institute, an organization that's responsible for upholding British trademark laws, say they are investigating a single trader but haven't received any complaints from Apple Corps.

Martin King, director of tourism promotion at the Liverpool development organization Mersey Partnership, reels off the Beatles' many efforts to help the city: Paul McCartney founded the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts; Yoko Ono appeared at the naming of the airport; John Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird opened Hard Days Night Hotel. But even King is wondering what might change. "Neil Aspinall had controlled Apple Corps until recently. It will be interesting to see to what extent the Beatles' legacy will be rather more available."

In the Beatles-themed art gallery adjacent to the Hard Days Night Hotel, a local musician, David Hughes, and his young daughter are browsing postcards. She says George Harrison is her favorite Beatle. He laughs about buying one of the bricks that supposedly came from the Cavern Club demolition site. "Liverpool had nothing, and now it's coming out of its shell," Hughes says. "But the Beatles don't belong just to Liverpool, they belong to the world."