International Law

For the Columbia Journalism Review, Chris Mooney considers the idea of the  Bloggers Guild of America:

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. The sweeping changes it has impelled in the media over the past decade or so have made film and TV writers feel less in control of the products of their labor. The current strike is the culmination of that: the writers are fighting for additional compensation when a product they?ve created for film or TV is distributed in some form over the Internet. Their current compensation? Nothing.

Bloggers often earn that same salary.

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In short, it?s a Wild West out there for bloggers?even though, without them, the Internet?s frontier would not have expanded so broadly or so rapidly. And even though, without them, the Web-derived profits many of these blog sites are starting to rake in simply wouldn?t exist.

At the same time, though, there?s sense in diversity when it comes to compensation: not all bloggers should be treated equally with respect to remuneration. Most bloggers, after all, don?t draw very much traffic; neither are they part of a blogging conglomerate that is making real money selling advertisements. Were bloggers to organize, a threshold would have to be established between blogging ?for fun? and blogging in a way that should be considered ?labor??between amateurs and professionals, if you will.

Such distinctions are hardly unprecedented?the Writers Guild of America, after all, does not include everyone with a screenplay squirreled away in his sock drawer. That?s why it?s a guild?you have to be a professional to be a member and reap the benefits. Something similar could happen for the blogosphere.

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The paradigm shifts we?re in the midst of?in media usage and, then, in standards of intellectual property?demand that we rethink not just what writers contribute to the media marketplace, but also how they should be compensated for their contributions. Individual blogs, and Web sites hosting large numbers of bloggers, are profiting?not just culturally and intellectually, but economically?from bloggers? work. Organizing, in that sense, seems not only inevitable, but necessary; ?professional? bloggers need to be compensated for their work. It?s only fair.?

Read more here.