[lbo-talk] Writers' strike

berber carpet bomb berber.carpet.bomb at gmail.com
Tue Jan 15 07:28:22 PST 2008


it's not replacing you with another worker, it's replacing you with copies of you. by filming your lectures, they can simply have you teach the course over and over again, without ever paying you but for your one stint teaching. by reproducing your lectures and the tests you come up with, they don't even have to do that. They can just compile it into a book and sell it to students. they've already paid you a salary, chump, so don't expect any money for the book of your lecture notes they'll sell over and over and over again.

i love how people like you, an artist who works in media that can't be replicated very easily (last I knew, you were in metal working), can be so cavaliar about the rest of us who don't -- and have to make a buck.

On Jan 14, 2008 10:10 PM, John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> bitch at pulpculture.org wrote:
> > so, th enext time you teach a course at the community college, you learn
> > that you must turn in your syll, your notes, your lectures, exams, and they
> > will tape you giving lectures.
> >
> > after that they say, sayanora fucker, we'll be using your stuff to teach
> > the course online. You get 2000 clams for the course, if you're lucky.
>
> I'm not so arrogant to imagine that I bring something so wonderful to
> teaching that it should be considered protected intellectual property.
> If the school wants to replace me with another teacher they are free to
> anytime.
> My agreement with the school is to teach. I am not contracted to provide
> them with written materials or manuals. I am paid to physically attend
> class and, using my accumulated knowledge and experience, try to pass on
> something of merit to my students with regards to a specific subject.
> If my job were to write a syllabus and lecture notes for the school I
> wouldn't be allowed to keep them, the school would already own them
> since they paid me to come up with it. They didn't pay me for my notes
> etc. so they don't belong to them. I'll freely give them a copy if they
> ask however.
>
> When I take on commissioned art work the person I work for gets
> everything if they want. If they want the notes, sketches, etc. they can
> have them. I'll keep a copy for myself if I deem them of value for me in
> the future. If they make copies of the work I don't care.
>
> If it's non-commissioned work I do of my own accord and them sell the
> same holds true. If someone takes one of the images I sold to them and
> copies it making thousands of dollars selling those copies I really
> don't care. I retain the right to use it but everything I do is to me
> put into the commons as it were.
>
> Everything I know about metal casting I'll share freely with anyone who
> asks. If I put it all on a website I would consider it all in the public
> domain regardless of any specific techniques I may have developed. The
> same goes for paintings, photographs, sculptures, whatever.
>
> Why should a cabinet maker have to physically build cabinets his entire
> life to derive an income stream but if I take a photograph that image
> should generate a perpetual income stream for me? Is photography so much
> harder or more important than cabinetry?
>
> How else could I possibly look at this issue since I have stated I am
> anti-copyright? I am well aware of the problems this can create for some
> artists since our society is already geared to remunerating in an unfair
> manner. That is why I am not hostile towards the writers strike but only
> that my support is extremely unenthusiastic.
>
>
> John Thornton
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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