With over 430 employees, more than 200 representatives in Spain, plus offices in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Argentina, SGAE protects the rights of more than two million members from all over the world.

It does so through reciprocal representation agreements entered into with 150 foreign societies which, in turn, administer and protect its members rights in their respective territories.

Through its Fundación Autor, or in collaboration with cultural institutions, SGAE enhances its promise to promote the continuous formation of its members and the diffusion of their works around the world, aiding for their well-being, including the start-up of an assistance program with multiple features and social benefits.

The digital canon was implemented on 18 December 2007, and it introduced the payment of a fee as compensation for private copying that both individuals and companies must pay regardless of the intended use for the device.

This has been a main argument of opponents of the blank media tax, who believe that the indiscriminate application of the canon does not respect the presumption of innocence of consumers.

The digital canon has grown unpopular in Spain and the two main Spanish organizations of Internet users had collected three million signatures by February 2010 calling for the abolition of the tax.

The Court of Justice of European Union General Counsel, Verica Trstenjak, ruled that the application of digital canon in Spain is illegal[7] when imposed indiscriminately on all recording and playing equipment and materials purchased by companies and not only those who presumably are intended for making private copies, the only case in which the digital canon would comply with European legislation.

[9] The SGAE has been involved in several controversies, like charging a fine of €96 to a middle school for trying to make a theatrical play whose rights belonged to Federico García Lorca's heirs.

[citation needed] Finally, Lorca's nephew, Manuel Fernández Montesinos, contacted the Ramón Menéndez Pidal middle school to inform that they could play "Bodas de sangre" without any charges.

A common description of SGAE by independent songwriters in Spain is that the organization is made up of pirates who prefer to keep and spend royalty money owed to the writers.