Copyright boards suck.

What is it with copyright boards and their insistence on not only jacking up royalties all the time, but making the new rates retroactive to as far back as 1996?

In 1996, I graduated high school.  I turn 30 next month.  How does anyone propose a retroactive tax going back that far without being immediately dismissed, corrected, or kicked in the balls?

And this is on legal music downloads, no less.