How Dare You All

Disney's writer wage-theft is far worse than reported

Back in November, we learned that Disney had pulled a breathtakingly criminal wage-theft manuever on one of science-fiction’s most beloved authors, Allan Dean Foster, an elderly cancer-patient caring for his sick wife.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/19/disneymustpay/#disneymustpay

Foster is the bestselling author of some of the most successful movie novelizations ever, from the first STAR WARS novel to ALIENS novels and more. Thanks to Disney’s monopolistic buying spree of companies like Lucas and Fox, they now owned the movies and Foster’s contract.

Here’s where things get criminally weird. Disney argued that when they bought out Lucas, Fox, etc, they acquired their assets, but not their liabilities. In other words, they’d acquired the right to sell Foster’s work, but not the obligation to pay him when they did.

This is not how copyright contracts work, period. If it were, then any publisher with a runaway bestseller novel could incorporate a new company, sell its assets - but not its liabilities - to that company, and stiff the writer.

Both Foster’s agent and the Science Fiction Writers of America tried to negotiate with Disney quietly on this, but they were stonewalled and insulted (Disney insisted that they wouldn’t even *discuss* a deal without first getting nondisclosure agreements from Foster, another unheard-of tactic).

After failing to make progress with private negotiations, they went loudly public, launching the #DisneyMustPay campaign. The good news is, the campaign was successful, and Foster has been paid.

The bad news is that the campaign flushed out *many* writers who are also having their wages stolen by Disney. The company is stalling them, too - refusing to search its records or volunteer info unless the authors can name the specific instances in which they’ve been robbed.

In response, SFWA has joined forces with the Romance Writers of America, the Horror Writers of America, the National Writers Union, Sisters in Crime and the Authors Guild to form a coalition called Writers Must Be Paid.

https://www.writersmustbepaid.org/

They have a form where writers who suspect that Disney has stolen their wages can report it, anonymously:

https://airtable.com/shrE1hJbqMHsjP9Ll

There’s a reason for the anonymity: Disney’s anticompetitive mergers (culminating with the destructive Fox merger) has created a monopoly with vast market-power to destroy creators’ livelihoods by excluding them for speaking out.

The coalition has five modest demands for Disney:

I. Honor contracts now held by Disney and its subsidiaries

II. Provide royalty payments and statements to all affected authors

III. Update their licensing page with an FAQ for writers about how to handle missing royalties

IV. Create a clear, easy-to-find contact person or point for affected authors.

V. Cooperate with author organizations who are providing support to authors and agents.

More broadly, I hope this brings more creative workers into the discussion about competition.

Specifically, “monopsony,” the excessive buying power that happens when a companies dominate access to a market, which allows them to squeeze their suppliers, especially workers.

Are you a Ninjago fan?

So am I! I'm working on making Ninjago City in Animal Crossing: New Horizons!

I'd love to have visitors, but sadly I'm not allowed to play with people I don't know, however...

Dream Addresses mean I don't interact with people ;)

Have fun y'all!

[The island is still heavily under editing, as it's my first time playing, but I've added some photos of my current progress!]

I'll be updating my dream frequently!

CPD just killed a fifteen year old child.

so can we start hunting down white liberals now or what

REBLOG IF YOU SUPPORT BISEXUALS!!

My parents are saying “I need to make my mind up” and I want to prove them that bisexuals are valid

In case anyone is having a bad night:

Here is the fudgiest brownie in a mug recipe I’ve found

Here are some fun sites

Here is a master post of Adventure Time episodes and comics

Here is a master post of movies including Disney and Studio Ghibli

Here is a master post of other master posts to TV shows and movies

*tucks you in with fuzzy blanket* *pats your head*

You’ll be okay, friend <3

ever notice that the mean voice in ur head that insults u is awful confident for something thats literally never done anything in its life except be mean to you… like… one of us is pathetic and its not me buddy… get a hobby… yikes

Simping platonically is absolutely a thing

I forget what my friends call it but their definition is "Someone you ALMOST simp for, but you don't actually simp, so you wanna be more than friends but not in a relationship"

And platonic simping is valid in every way

Hey Ninjago Fandom;

Can we all collectively agree that if you grew up watching the show (like I did, for example) and didn't have a crush on one of the characters, then you had no childhood?

Bonus points to my fellow fans that still be simpin for them character(s)!

Y'all!!! I just realized, when Lloyd got hit by the part of the Monastery he died. The FSM didn’t offer for Lloyd to die, he offered for him to live. His reward to Lloyd was life, and Lloyd took it

I’ll never understand why anthropomorphic animal cartoons like Robin Hood and Zootopia will go to the trouble of creating character designs that are meant to be understood as “attractive” or even “sexy” to the human audience but explicitly avoid showing interspecies romances between anthropomorphic animals. Why is THAT weird but, like, trying to make rabbits recognizably sexy-coded to humans isn’t?