[Christien]

Unfortunately, yes I can. As a composer myself, it's extremely irritating. There's a "levy" (industry jargon for a tax) on all blank recordable media in Canada. I'm not sure exactly how much it is, but it amounts to (I believe) about 10 cents per blank CD. This money is collected and distributed to recording artists based on their sales.

The idea was that piracy would be less harmful to the industry if those who committed said piracy paid a little extra to those they were ripping off. In the end, an extra dime per CD was deemed worth it to pirate a CD. But for those of us who go through CDs like candy to promote our music, it's a slap in the face. What this ends up meaning in the end is that Celine Dion and Bryan Adams get nice big cheques, whereas those of us who depend on blank media to distribute our own music/media (i.e. content that I created and own the rights to) get to pay them.

It's a really big thorn in the side of virtually every indie band, DJ, composer, etc. in Canada. The irony is, SOCAN fought hard for this tax. (SOCAN is the Canadian equivalent of ASCAP and BMI - performing rights organizations that advocate for musicians, composers, authors and publishers, and also handle royalty collection and distribution.) Many of us were furious at SOCAN for supporting this tax, but they didn't listen, because they knew it would bring their big-name roster more money, and, like much legislation in this country, looked sexy but did little to solve the root problem.