As I'm sure many of you know, Canada has a "private copying levy," which is a fairly large tax on blank media, that is supposed to pay the content industry for the private, non-commercial copying that people do at home. Of course, some might note that private, non-commercial copying is the sort of thing that's legal fair use of content and shouldn't be charged for in the first place. Others might note that even with this tax, Canadians are told that it's illegal to share music online. It's all a bit of a mess. However, the truth is that it's free money for the industry, and they don't give up on that without a fight. Remember last year, when they came out with a ridiculous poll that actually suggested Canadians wanted to pay an even higher levy on blank CDs? The latest report is that the board that sets the fees wanted to raise them again, but actually agreed to keep some of the fees the same, while lowering some others. However, this resulted in a problem. The group realized that there's been a $2.5 million overpayment in the last three years. That is, consumers were charged $2.5 million more in these fees than they should have paid. The obvious solution is to give that money back to consumers in some manner... but instead, the group that manages the money plans to reimburse "importers and manufacturers." Yes, read that again. They're going to reimburse companies that didn't pay the fee and stiff those that did. How nice of them. Why do I get the feeling that these reimbursements won't find their way down the line to cheaper blank media prices?