IMO, the buck really SHOULDN'T stop with Mick but it probably would as I think it's fair game to anyone that is in the latest lineup of the band to carry it on if no one else is going to and it doesn't have to be the "namesake" so to speak. I mean, look at Pink Floyd, there is no Pink or Floyd and Dave Gilmour carried on with the name much to Roger Waters' dismay, but I'm personally glad DG "won the case" on the PF name thing, but that's just me.
I remember Bob Welch saying in his Penguin Q & A that, although it would NEVER happen, that it would be interesting if all of the ex Mac members (Welch, Bramlett, Vito, Burnette, Brunning, etc.) formed a band, if they could call it "Fleetwood Mac" or not or something like that. It would be an interesting legal case. Now that I think of it though, I think original Deep Purple vocalist Rod Evans tried to form a version of DP around him circa 1980 (when no version of Purple was existant) but was apparently stopped so it probably woulnd't work anyways, I wish I could remember more details about this deal now. Hey ChiliD, do you recall anything about this?!
Along these lines, I remember in the British FM documentary "FM at 21" from 1988 Trevor Dann asked Mick if he thought there would be a FM if he (Mick) wasn't there and Mick seemed to be caught off gaurd by the question and just said "uh, no, I somehow don't think so, no." and Dann said "Oh it's YOUR band" and Mick seemed kinda annoyed and said kind of snappy "no, it's just that...I just don't think the band would carry on if I wasn't here" or something like that so I sometimes try to read in to that out of speculation as to whether he really has "exclusive" rights to the name or what but you'd think he would've said that the band wouldn't exist if he wasn't there due to him owning the name if he did have total rights on the FM name but eh, who knows though, interesting topic though.
John