Earlier last month, when Toronto indie-rock quartet Spiral Beach were preparing some pre-publicity for their next gig at the Opera House, no one in the band would have thought that a simple poster could end up landing them $1,500 bucks in the hole.

"We always put up our own posters," says Airick Woodhead, the group's vocalist and guitarist. "Sometimes we just put them on pylons. I'm a fan of the DIY method. We try to keep things cheap."

Two weeks before the gig, Airick and Maddy Wilde, the band's singer/keyboardist, went postering downtown at 3am, putting up some new comic strip-style posters that Wilde designed herself. As costly advertising campaigns go, it wasn't quite up there with Indiana Jones or the Sex and the City movie. "We like to make our own homemade poster glue," drummer Daniel Woodhead told me. "It's just flour and water."

The Opera House gig went fine. Depending on which band member you talk to, the group either made $100, or $200, or just about broke even. Although Spiral Beach have toured with Sloan and The Hidden Cameras, gigging at home in Toronto isn't much of an money maker. "We hired a promoter for the first time," says Airick. "Which was costly."

The four-piece band, who are in their late teens and early twenties, seem hardened to the habit of losing money. "There's lots of expenses involved in putting on a show," says Daniel, who works at a travel agency during the day. "At the Opera House we had tire swings, and a helium tank, and filled up about four hundred balloons. Then you have to rent the PA, pay a percentage to the promoter, make the flyers, pay someone to work the door. And we usually print and design our own tickets, too."

Everything was business as usual until six days after the show on May 23, when Guy Ellinas, the owner of the Opera House, received a couriered letter from EcoMedia Direct, the company that operates Toronto's SilverBox recycling bin program. The letter was headed "Re: Unauthorized Bill Posting on SilverBox® Recycling Units," and came with an invoice for $1,470.

It has come to our attention, the letter read, that "during the week of May 3 to 19, bills or posters advertising your business" — these would be Maddy Wilde's Spiral Beach posters — "were placed on a number of our SilverBox Units in the Bloor Street West and the Queen Street West areas of Toronto. Needless to say, we view unauthorized postering, and the negative impact that it has on our business, as a serious breach of our rights, which we intend to protect vigorously."

Above: One of the offending posters, as photographed by EcoMedia.

Spiral Beach's posters had covered up some of the paid-for advertising on eight of EcoMedia's bins, a fine-worthy offense. The letter, signed by company CEO Erich Genseberger, listed the expenses as such: $780 for cleaning and removal of the posters, $320 for the "collection and inspection of evidence," $300 for a administration fee, and $70 GST. Should the Opera House fail to abide by these requirements, the letter warned, EcoMedia reserved "the right to pursue our legal remedies… against you without further notice."

Without prejudice, the Opera House staff passed on the invoice to Spiral Beach themselves. The band, needless to say, were a little bummed out. "We're already in debt," says Airick. "It was just regular Joe postering, I don't even remember doing it. I mean, we're just a small band, we're not a stadium rock group. I would have come and cleaned them off myself if they'd asked."

Daniel says he's happy to take responsibility for the fine. "It was basically our fault. But the amount does seem kind of unreasonable," he says. "It was only homemade glue — the posters would have pulled off really easily. It's kind of ridiculous, though. Are you supposed to fine every single person who puts a poster up on one of your bins?"

Ironically, Eco Media pride themselves on their support for young emerging artists. The company runs a program — the EcoMedia Street Art™ Sponsorship Program — that displays work by young artists (along with small sponsorship logos) on about 60 of their 3,600 Toronto bins. "It's a really passive-aggressive form of advertising," says Erich Genseberger. "They look really nice. It's not really screaming its advertising out at you."

According to Genseberger, the cost to remove posters from recycling bins is actually more than $1,500. "The cost for cleaning is much higher than we charge for it," he told me. "Some people use really aggressive glues, and then after removing the posters we have to clean up the surrounding areas, too. But it's not really a money-making proposition for me. Postering on our bins is unauthorised and illegal, and I will put a stop to it one way or another. It's bad for us, it's bad for our clients, and it's bad for the city."

EcoMedia issued a similar invoice — also for $1,500 — to the Brunswick Theatre last year, although the fine was cancelled after the Brunswick went out of business. "It's an outrage," says Rami Tabello, an anti-billboard activist who runs the website illegalsigns.ca. "They've been sending out these letters to as many organizations as possible, so if 2 per cnt of them pay up, they'll have made their postage costs. Eco Media are already being paid by advertisers to keep their bins clean. But they want the money twice. It sounds like a shakedown to me."

This is where the story gets complicated — or boring, depending on your perspective. I tried to get in touch with the Toronto Solid Waste Management service to get some information on postering bylaws and fines. The band were clearly at fault for their illegal postering — and happy to admit as much — but EcoMedia's fine did seem rather excessive. Was it really acceptable for a private company to levy such a huge charge? Shouldn't the costs of poster-cleaning have been covered as part of EcoMedia's contract with the city? (I asked Genseberger for information on EcoMedia's city contract, and he told me to get in touch with Solid Waste Management, as he was unsure of the specific details.)

Of course, trying to get understandable information from the city turned out to be as useful as pissing into an eggcup to stop a forest fire. ("I am an automaton, and am not allowed to have an opinion," one clerk at Solid Waste Management jokingly told me.) It's no wonder, as councillor Howard Moscoe told the Globe and Mail in January, that Toronto's "sign bylaw is a complete and total disaster." Most of my calls — I left about eight or more messages on various city answering machines — went unreturned.

I did, however, receive a cheerful (and unsolicited) call from Scarborough councillor Glen De Baeremaeker. "It doesn't seem like an unreasonable amount for EcoMedia to bill," said De Baeremaeker, who chairs the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. "If the band had postered on public property, the city would've sued them too. If they want to dispute the cost, take it to a judge. You're defacing someone else's property — and surprise surprise, somebody caught ya. But you break the law, you damage somebody's property, you pay. Why should tax payers have to clean up after their mess?"

Because the poster was a work of advertising, De Baeremaeker reasoned, it was indefensible as creative expression: "Some people say postering is freedom of expression, but is [Cineforum's] 'Sex and Violence Cartoon Festival' free expression? No — it's a business. If you're running a business or event, you have to follow the rules."

Spiral Beach remain pretty cheerful about the episode, however. This weekend, they will be performing some fundraising street shows — also known as busking — around town at various locations (Friday at 6pm at Brunswick & Bloor, Saturday at 6pm outside the ROM, and on Sunday in Kensington Market). There's also a benefit show planned at the Whippersnapper Gallery for June 20.

Asks Airick, "Do you think we should do a poster?"