Legal or illegal

[RandyMcCharles]

In Canada you don't get a KJ license, you get a business licence. A KJ cannot work in a venue without a business license, though venues 'can' hire under the table at the risk of losing their own business license. Mostly this is to ensure that income tax is paid.
In order to get a business license to be a KJ you have to describe your business, which description includes playing properly licensed music. The Canadian gvt is very paranoid about licensed music. I don't know about the US, but in Canada when you buy a blank CD you pay a music tax because the gvt assumes you will copy music to it and then also assumes that you got the music without paying royalties. It doesn't matter if you are using the CDs for photos from your camera or are making legal copies of music you paid for. They assume the worst and everyone pays. Some of that money even gets distributed to musicians. Anyway, I am not a professional Kj, but I spoke to one about her business license and she told me that she must undergo a voluntary audit once or twice a year. She pays a registered auditor to inspect her hard drive and her CGS collection and receipts and writes a letter stating that all is in good order. Without this letter, she cannot renew her business license, and without a business license, venues will not hire her.