A Proposal For Unionizing Bloggers 259
mikesd81 writes "Coloumbia Journal Review writes about the possibility of unionizing bloggers. Chris Mooney writes 'Yes, dear reader: the Bloggers Guild of America may be on its way. The dispute between screen and television writers and media conglomerates has its roots, after all, in the Web.' He says, then, they get zero compensation for their products being distributed over the Internet. 'Bloggers often earn that same salary. There are exceptions, of course, those fortunate few who have become quasi-celebrities in their own right and found themselves, and their sites, snatched up by major media companies,' he goes on to say. He also adds that a bloggers guild could protect a blogger's intellectual property and help ensure they're compensated for it."
Re:What about scientists? (Score:5, Informative)
I put PDFs and BibTeX for all of my peer-reviewed papers online. You can read and cite them without going near a for-profit journal, even if that is where they were originally published. If other scientists don't do this, you should complain to them for not exercising their freedoms in a way that benefits you (or just bounce your connection via an HTTP proxy hosted in a university IP range, which gets you access to most things).
Also, bear in mind that the writings of a researcher are typically not regarded as having intrinsic value, they represent something which has value (the research) and are intended as advertising rather than a product. In contrast, the writings of a blogger are their product.
Professionals vs Amateurs (Score:3, Informative)
God damn. I know that in this era and country there is this cultural phenomenon which consists in discrediting exports/professionals with respect to amateurs, but could we at least remember the difference between an amateur and a professional?
This whole 'blogger=journalist' movement is ridiculous and quite insulting to actual career journalists. I don't know how it's like in the US but here in France you need a license to call yourself a journalist (Disclaimer : my father was a French journalist), so if you want to be called that that's what you've gotta obtain. And don't get me started with the FUD some of you would like to give me about having the government/an organisation to decide who's a journalist, because here any journalist from the most Marxist to the most neo-fascist has their license.
Re:As well as (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No surprise there (Score:5, Informative)
Pal, I don't know if you're an American, but if it wasn't for unions, there wouldn't be a middle class in this country.
Pick up a history of labor in the US and see what working conditions here were like before the organized labor movement. Any of you have a nice relaxed day yesterday? Well, if it wasn't for labor unions, you'd have been working a full day yesterday. If you've taken a sick day in the past few years, you can thank the Union Label.
How about health insurance? You guys like that you can go to the doctor and an insurance company picks up the tab? That was the labor unions, too. I don't know if any of you have ever been seriously hurt on the job and gotten disability pay, it's because labor unions fought like hell to get that protection. Did you get Christmas off with pay? Guess who?
You may not realize it, but when miners, factory workers, truck drivers, etc were getting ground into dirt by an ownership class that was pissed off over the loss of slave labor, those workers got together and talked to one another, and stood together and got their heads beaten in for their trouble. A lot of them were killed by hired goons that worked for the factory owners. It took a lot of years of work by some really stand-up folks to make sure young women wouldn't get burned to death in a shirt factory that kept the doors chained so the girls wouldn't step outside for fresh air. And now we've got some check-pantsed pansies who think that if they just lick enough ass their bosses are going to take care of them, talking about how organized labor is "corrupt" but don't blink when Circuit City fires their best trained and most experienced workers just because they happened to have gotten a raise, then offered to hire them back at entry-level wages. Just wait until a few of them get laid off: Instant Progressive!
If it wasn't for labor unions, this country would be made up of a few owners and a lot of very poor workers. With the concerted anti-union effort that started with that doddering wrinkled prick Ronald Reagan, we're headed back in that direction right quick. You better believe the ownership class is organized, via lobbies and PACs and huge political contributions. I bet you "free-market" zombies don't mind that one bit. But as soon as a few factory workers get together and decide to look out for one another, it's demonized as "socialism" or worse.
Do bloggers need a union? Who the fuck knows. Does the US need an organized labor union? Only if you don't want to see your kids grow up to be serfs or indentured slaves, and want them to have a decent chance at the middle-class lifestyle that's becoming little more than a distant memory to you and me.
The next time you try to forget about the fact that your 401k is dropping value like a stone by reading Investors Business Daily, take a few minutes and google "Wobblies" or "IWW". Learn about how the US became an economic and industrial powerhouse. Just as it was for Poland and many other European countries, the labor union in America was a big part of our most productive era. And how the decline of our economic standing in the world coincides neatly with the defeat of the Union Movement at the hands of "pro-growth" "free-market"-types like the ones that now call themselves "Republican".