Major Record Labels Forced to Pay $45M USD for Pirating Music

Since the 1980s, record companies have taken tracks from musicians who had not signed with them and put them on a "pending list". This left thousands of musicians receiving no royalties as the major labels used, distributed, and even profited off their tracks.

In Canada alone, this situation reached the point where 300,000 tracks, some dated back to the 1980s were listed as "pending". Some musicians were actively working -- to no avail -- to stop the record companies from pirating their tracks.