As a follow-up on the SOCAN saga, I filled out their user survey a few days ago, being sure to inject my views on Tariff 22 throughout.
I just received the latest "Words and Music" magazine of theirs in the mail, I thought I selected not to have the paper version sent, it usually just serves to make me angry- it's so ensconced in the commodification of creative form. The idea of having artists compensated for the commercial use of their work is fine with me- that's why I'm a member- but the monetization of cultural exchange creates artificial class barriers that limit access to participation in the larger cultural dialogue...
An example from my personal experience is this:
The radio station in Killaloe- [chcr] is going to be getting high-speed Internet access soon, but if Tariff 22 becomes a reality, they won't be able to stream their signal. I'm living out of range of their radio tower, so I can't listen to it. A great deal of what they play is local stuff- things I would like to hear, but can't. The reason I have a SOCAN membership to begin with is from being played on chcr, as a broadcaster they are required to pay SOCAN fees, but it makes anybody played on it eligible for a membership. It's interesting to note that, while I have been played on chcr, and have been entered into their cue sheets (I've also been on Trent Radio [CFFF]), it's never registered enough for me to get a payment (as I noted in a previous blog, I did get paid for some incidental music in a short played on cbc tv)- a small community radio station's playlist just gets lost when counted on a national level- even though the ratio of amount played vs. the amount of fees paid on the local scale is very different, it's not taken into account (not unlike the [CPCC], the body that collects the tariff on blank cd's and redistributing it to the artists- but they base their payments on main stream broadcasts, which I don't think is necessarily the most accurate source for this information, especially in this time of diversification of the arts because of digital media)...
In the end it's large Corps co-opting people's sweat, blood and tears to further their agenda of maintaining the centralization of power- keep the spectacle running! Make sure the only power people have is through money- that way all power is codified and co-opted... and above all don't let people start developing their own sense of local community, where they might be able to find ways of autonomously fulfilling their own needs... not unlike the state of local farming in relation to agro-business... or small stores in relation to the mega-franchises...

So on that front, lets try to do something different- create your own culture- grow your own reality- reinvent your way of being :-)