Content Creator Union

These are all great points and the details will have to be ironed out.

Hiro Queso mentioned the issue of defining "content creator." My feeling is that the distinction is unimportant. Prokofy need not bother rezzing that prim to join us. However, would Prokofy be willing to pay union dues and Boycott Second Life for a week in order to pursuade Linden Lab to pay reparations for sale items that become public domain? If so ... WELCOME TO THE UNION! But I suspect not. As you can see, no strict definion of "Content Creator" is necessary. People will decide for themselves if this organization is where they want to be.

Thanks Aimee, I read your response after my above post. I think you'd be more effective if you pulled Midnight City back into your inventory and deprived LL of the pleasuere of your tier payment.

I've already sued in my mind too. It only took about ten seconds. I settled out of court for a pat on the back and a t-shirt.

I still can't believe you posted this lol

Probably bugger all.

I expect that it's appealing to the player created aspect of the world.

But in the end I see it affecting them very little if none at all. Except having a bunch of ppl walking around with signs and such like the 'tax revolt'.

Eventually every time a player run political group idea is put forward it comes down to looking at 'what will it do' and seeing how I have to 'opt in' to have anything done to me - that boils down to very little.

Also without player consent there is no way enforce a 'picket line' - what you gonna do? blacklist them? how do you enforce that? Protest their store? well - thats harrassment

A lot of ideas look good on paper - but when you start doing the nuts n bolts they start falling apart..

But hey... you can do anything in SL so knock yourselves out and give it a whirl... Call me jaded and cynical, I just don't see it doing much other than appeal to idealism - which is fine and I won't put that down - just I'm a jaded realist.

Well that would be the super duper nuclear option LOL. I think tiering down would be more of a landowner strategy as their landholdings could cause much more damage than just Midnight City alone. Content Creators in general don't have enough combined land to use tier as a bargaining chip. Our power is in the control of our creations. That is where our focus would be.

How will you evalute claims that may lead to union action? Use the content becoming public domain example. Something someone made got out but even they aren't clear on how. Did they trust someone they shouldn't have? Did they accidentally mis-set the permissions? Did someone find a new hack? Boils down to is it SL's fault, or the creators?

As long as it doesn't mirror, the "Hey! Fuck you! That's not my job" RL union mentality, along with folks filing grievances, day in, day out, for hangnails, I guess I would consider this.

I say the above, because I was in the United Steelworkers Union about 15 years ago, and it was just a travesty -- there's such a thing as TOO much employee protection, especially when people are allowed to stand around, idling, drinking coffee, and reading newspapers because there is no work in their department, while simultaneously refusing to help out in other departments, and being allowed to do so because of union backing. I regularly saw people whip out the little contract pamphlet and shove it in the face of managers. Don't even get me started on all the frivolous "grievances" I saw claimed. In my opinion, unions simply do not fit the purpose they were created for anymore. We needed them when employers were abusing workers, but these days, we have all kinds of government protections that simply render most unions useless, IMHO.

What is being described here sounds less like a union, and more like a business association (I hope).

wasn't a better business bureau already attempted in SL?

Indeed - the RATE group - a very simple idea that both myself AND Chip supported when it was formed.

It only took 3 weeks for it to become a tangled flaming jumbled mess of bullshit, red tape, and politics.

Every wonder *WHY* I'm a jaded realist?

I suppose if we end up with a Content Creators's Union then we should have a Consumer's Union just for symmetry.

You mean to tell me people bring politics into SL?

Only if LL adds the last name "Nader".

I'm with Hiro on this. The strength in a community is in its ability to come together and work towards the common good. SL is very divided with the various factions working against each other. I don't think we'll see much progress until a significant corporate presense exists at which point all the independants will come together against the big companies. Except for the independants who are able to contract their services to the big guys, of course.

I don't recall it being quite that bad, hehe. I still think it was an excellent idea. The bottom line is that there are a million other things that are way more fun to spend your time doing than administering a bureaucracy.

If consumers, in general, feel that they are getting the shaft from Content Creators and have little or no recourse, this is a great idea. My experience has been that a simple IM to most content creators is enough to get some great customer service, but your milage may vary!

The added benefit to a consumer union is, when causes of the two unions overlap, they can team up to exert considerable influence!

Would the consumer have to march in a picket line or would it be okay to hold the sign and, let's say, just sit a spell?

No, thankyou.

I support this idea.

Some Union humor from one of my all time favorite episodes of The Simpsons...

What are your specific goals, Aimee? I could see how such a union could be used to leverage power in a blunt, unspecified direction, creating some chaos and interest... but to what end?

I mean, I can't think of any reparations I'd really want right now from the Lindens. It'd be nice if they'd find a way to be service providers to us all instead of being increasingly dependent on a few large customers, but that's up to them to fix.

Would this make you like Jimmy Hoffa Aimee?

Great point. I would hope "MY" goals wouldn't be the focus. Initially I would work to establish a self sustaining organization that could vote on its own specific goals (then Aimee can go retire and write erotic stories about South American men in assless pants.)

But I don't want to evade your question. This chicken/egg has to start somewhere. The charter for this Union would be directed to support the general interests of content creators. I know that term will eventually need more precise definition and that will be handled if there is popular support for a Union.

We would advocate reparations on par with other segments of the Second Life community. If technical limitations make these reparations difficult or impossible, then we would advocate the Lindens create technical solutions to overcome these limitations.

Example: Robin Linden indicated that content creators could never receive reparations because there doesn't exist the statistical data indicating how much we are losing. I don't 100% believe this as these losses could be extrapolated from our Account History

(Before my Doc Webers became public domain I sold 5/day at 100 Lindens ... AFTER they became public domain I sell 1/day at 100 Lindens. That is a 400 Linden loss / day. Payment by check will be fine.)

But if we DO lack the features that would provide statistical data, then this Union should advocate a feature request that puts the needed technology in place that will give the Lindens enough info to make reparation decisions.

Another goal ... If a Linden policy change causes loss in Content Creator business, they should be entitled to the same treatment as landowners. Roam and Taxi Services are a great example of content creators we would support. Both segments of this economy were obliterated by P2P. They deserve reparations just as much as landowners. If Linden Lab cannot figure out how much to pay them...this Union will organize and demand Linden Lab figure it out. Zero Linden dollars is NOT the answer.

I hope this gives you a feel for the goals of the Content Creator Union I propose.

Ah, ok. I don't think I'd be very enthused by that, but then personal profit and loss are not big concerns of mine. I've already cashed out what business I had and tiered completely down, so my boycott would be more of the same anyway. I'd love to help lobby for something with principle to it, like getting rid of the inequitable "Real Estate" system for selling server resources altogether.

A strike should always be a very, very last resort. This sounds kind of like a strike is already imminent.

If the idea is to just do a union as a protest, and then have it do a strike, over unhappiness that telehub land owners have gotten reparations, I would not be interested.

I would like to have a union - or some kind of association anyway - that would give content creator's concerns a larger voice, an organized way of letting our most common needs be known and addressed (and a better way than voting on the voting page).

coco

P.S. Maybe what would be better, for what I am interested in, is a builder's association that would advocate for better tools for builders basically.