jennings rampage

I’ve always been a friend of labor.

This blog supports the WGA in their strike against the studios, because the writers are right and the studios are evil. This much is a no-brainer. Artistic unions are important to protect the interests of artistic labor in a market dominated by a corporate oligopoly, even though they chafe my libertarian bent. The WGA isn’t the easiest union in the world to love, but they serve their purpose well, and I’m behind them the whole way. And they’re clearly being treated like shit by the studios, and it’s offensive and infuriating.

The central issues of this strike are residual payments for DVDs and payment and protection for content delivered over the Internet. Currently, the writers get practically nothing for DVD sales, and exactly nothing for new media distribution. I will be supporting the WGA strike by not purchasing any DVDs produced by struck companies, purchasing any new media downloads produced by struck companies (by iTunes or otherwise), or watching any streaming video supported by ad revenue that goes to struck companies.

If the strike were taking place in April, I’d probably just do all of that and keep it to myself. But the holiday season is coming up, and I think this is important enough to encourage my friends to support the strike by not buying DVDs or iTunes gift cards for presents. The writers won’t miss the money, because there isn’t any for them in the current scheme. And I’ll be quite happy not to give my money to the studios until the strike is resolved and the writers want to come back to work.

If you choose not to support the strike this way, that’s fine. But if you were planning to get me a gift, please don’t get me a DVD or an iTunes card. And if you’re pining for a gift from me, I hope you like knitwear.