Sparks flew on the first day of the Copyright Board of Canada hearing into the blank media levy on January 21 when lawyer Howard Knopf, working on behalf of a coalition of Canadian retailers, raised the board’s ire as he sought to establish a solid case that the levy is a tax. Knopf’s afternoon cross-examination of Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) chair Claudette Fortin drew several sharp rebukes from board chair John Gomery as the litigator tried again and again to pursue lines of inquiry deemed inappropriate by opposing counsel and the board. But observers note that Knopf is working quickly to establish several facts in the proceeding on which the retailers will likely challenge at the Federal Court of Appeal.