[cc-community] Are Jocks Smarter The Creatives? was: Re: Rcrd Lbl to offer CC and Free as in Beer Music

Aaron Shaw adshaw at berkeley.edu
Sun Nov 18 12:23:48 EST 2007


What's interesting to me about Drew's analogy is that professional athletes
only receive a greater portion of league profits as a result of protracted
labor organizing efforts that began in the 1970's (look up "Curt Flood" if
you want to learn more).

This organizing was, in part, a possibility because owners and the public
were willing to concede that what athletes did for a living looked and felt
a lot like physical labor.Professional athletes thus cashed in on the
legitimacy of organized labor at a time when a blue collar image was
actually a political advantage in the U.S!

Since then, it's amazing how much more effective the players' unions have
been than the AFL-CIO at protecting the wages, rights, and image of their
members. Too bad the creative industries didn't have a Curt Flood way back
then - we might be looking at a very different situation.

This history clarifies two challenges for those of us who would argue that
"creatives" deserve a share of the profits generated through their industry:


(1) Hollywood writers' strike notwithstanding, the image of organized labor
in the U.S. ain't what it used to be. Also, I would bet that many people
think "creative work" is a contradiction in terms. Therefore, while CC
licenses have unquestionably provided an invaluable tool for resisting the
corporate control of the culture industry, a lot more public relations work
remains to be done before the phrase "organized cultural workers" inspires
people to imagine anything other than a some anachronistic soviet
bureaucracy.

(2) If creative workers do want to unite, they face an uphill battle insofar
as labor power around the world is not exactly at an all time high. For
example, union membership in the United States has not been as low as it is
now since the early 20th century. That said, some unions are seeing growth.
Generally speaking, they are the unions that organize foreign-born service
workers or well-educated workers such as teachers and nurses. It is possible
that "creatives" represent a population that is similarly "organizable;"
however, in their case, the nature of the culture industry is such that it
would pose very different challenges than those faced by LA's janitors. Any
industry where the products of labor have been digitized and can be
reproduced for a few ¢'s is inherently quite different than one where
employees must show up at a worksite each day for a given number of hours.
Nevertheless, is it possible to imagine a day when writers, musicians,
actors, artists, performers, bloggers, and free-software coders find common
political interests with the SEIU (Service Employee's International Union)?
I would like to think so. To stick with the example of southern California,
many of these folks are probably already voting for labor candidates
(Villaraigosa??) and these votes could create more tangible political impact
with the right kinds of organizational pressure.

What would Disney do the day its janitors *and *its creative talent walked
out?


-Aaron





On Nov 18, 2007 4:55 AM, drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> wrote:

> On Sunday 18 November 2007 03:12:01 Lucas Gonze wrote:
> > On Nov 17, 2007 8:37 PM, drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> wrote:
> > > so much of the trouble musicians would face with
> > > copyright is actually unloaded onto others.
> > >
> > > For instance, a cover band plays in a club. The band is playing
> someone
> > > else's music. Are they responsible for paying the royalties? No, the
> club
> > > owner is.
> >
> > And how.  Nicely said, brother.
> >
> > > If musicians actually had to deal with this copyright mess directly,
> it
> > > may be more clear to more of them that the laws were not passed with
> > > their rights and welfare in mind.
> >
> > Most musicians are way too earthy to think about copyright.  It's not
> > a plausible topic.  And the music business as a whole reflects this
> > culture.
>
> To the benefit of the suits and the disadvantage of the artists?
>
> Are jocks smarter than creatives? (Purposefully Provicative Tabloid Type
> Headline!)
>
> What percentage of revenue (and income)  do jocks get from their leagues?
>
> NFL?
> MLB?
> NBA?
> NHL?
>
> To name some US ones.
>
> Soccer leagues in Europe?
>
> What percentage of their industry do creatives get?
>
> Authors?
> Song Writers? (lyrics and melody)
> Screen Writers?
> Actors?
>
>
> all the best,
>
> drew
>
>
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