For All The Talk From Hollywood About Making Sure People Get Paid, Why Doesn't It Pay Interns?
from the because-it's-never-been-about-getting-anyone-paid-by-studio-bosses dept
We hear the refrain from the entertainment industry all the time, about how they are fighting against modern technology because without it, people don't get paid, and how unfair is that? The RIAA's Cary Sherman keeps talking about all those lost jobs (even though his math doesn't add up), and talking about all the people the movie industry "employs" (exaggerated by an order of magnitude) has become a key part of the MPAA boss Chris Dodd's stump speech.So, isn't it interesting that the entertainment industry may be facing a potentially big class action problem... for not paying interns? Apparently, it's quite common for entertainment industry heavyweights to take on unpaid interns, usually eager kids hoping to "break into" the business. But, federal law (and the key state laws) are pretty explicit in noting that "free" internships are almost always illegal for for-profit companies.
Now, to be clear, I actually don't think free internships -- entered into willingly -- should be illegal (just as I don't think there's anything wrong with people volunteering to do stuff for free). But if Hollywood is running around whining about getting more people paid... it seems pretty hypocritical to then not pay people working for you.
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Filed Under: class action lawsuit, hollywood, interns, movie industry, paying
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Are you paying people to write for this silly blog?
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Idiot. Cant read huh?
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:)
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First lesson in Bizarro (Troll) School: If you read and understand the lesson, you automatically get a failing grade.
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Maybe the AC's unpaid intern didn't read the whole article to him before he dictated his response to be posted in the comments...?
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So I guess RIAA/MPAA really are worse than Chinese factories.
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That presupposes that a company that pays its interns is "better" than one that doesn't. What rubbish. If an intern agrees to work for free, then there's nothing wrong with Mike. Mike even concedes this very point. How fucking desperate is he that he faults them for not living up to a standard that he admits is no big deal not to live up to?
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The RIAA always talks about how artists *must* get paid and are only harmed when others benefit for free, yet still act as if unpaid internships are good.
See the contridiction yet?
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Boycott the MAFIAA
Support & Buy Local & Indie Art
Fuck Hollywood !
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Are you paying people to write for this silly blog?
Agreed. It's whiny, hate-fueled, straw man posts like this that, unfortunately, keep Techdirt at the fringe. Why does Mike feel the need to publish such substanceless nonsense? Just because they don't pay interns, a common practice that Mike himself (for obvious, self-related reasons) approves of doesn't diminish from their belief that professionals, who don't agree to give it away for free, should get paid. This article is so dumb and desperate, that I honestly can't understand why Mike wrote it. How desperate is he? How stupid and silly is his hatred of the MPAA. I'm sorry, but the fact that he publishes shit like this is just pathetic.
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Hollywood whines all the time about people disrespecting copyright because, as they say, people will lose jobs. To keep on saying this, while not paying a certain group of employees, at the very least looks hypocritical, if it actually isn't.
Surely if they actually were that worried about the income of those at the bottom of the food chain, those people would actually have an income, no?
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And yet, here you are commenting on it.
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Slow week apparently means posting incendiary material to drum up traffic.
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I object to it.
It should be illegal.
What are we?
Cambodia?
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People getting paid for work is definitely not important, right?
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Sorry. When you post under AC, it's really hard to tell you two apart.
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What an unpaid intern is supposed to be doing is receiving mentoring from the experienced professionals of the company as to learn to be more proficient at their particular vocation. All their work is to be educational and is not for the company's benefit, except to be a potential future employee of equal merit after graduation. To use unpaid interns in for-profit work is to place them into servitude through deception or coercion.
Interns are not free labor you can use or abuse at your whim you "fucking buffoon." It is a valuable step in the educational process.
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trix are for kids
Duh, Star wars has still not turned a profit. Movies dont make money. They do them for fun.
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Re: trix are for kids
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Re: Re: trix are for kids
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It's best to get them used to being taken advantage of early so they never know better.
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So they can become under-paid professionals whose jet-setting Cayman Island-hoarding bosses provide the "but...but...piracy!" excuse every time they ask for their residuals.
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Pays well
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Isn't the next question...
You're pointing out the hypocrisy, I'm wondering if we can ever get them to acknowledge that there is at least one form of "free" that actually is valuable to the "free" contributor. Then it's just a slippery slope away from boo-yah...
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Re: Isn't the next question can you not read at all or did you just get bored after the first sentance?
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Re: Re: Isn't the next question can you not read at all or did you just get bored after the first sentance?
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Should there be a minimum wage?
Should there be a maximum number of hours an unpaid intern should work in a week?
Should the internship be unpaid even if the person was coerced into entering it? Example: Many schools require an internship as as a graduation requirement.
If an intern is from a foreign country, do they need a work visa if they are unpaid?
Can interns work unpaid as a means of working off a debt?
Should any agreement between two people enter into willingly be legal?
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The question is should you carpet the world or wear slippers. Adults should not be protected from themselves.
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Yes, yes, no, yes, that would be a form of payment but should still be limited, within the bounds of reason and the law.
You don't have to carpet all the world, but it saves a lot of hassle if you don't have to deal with people bleeding and falling over everywhere. Unless you are advocating an extreme 'social darwinian' position?
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You just described indentured servitude, which is illegal in the US.
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That is until someone signs a record label contract...
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Because Piracy
You can't on one claw say, "Everything should be free" and then on the other claw complain "More people should be paid."
Shirley, you must see the dilemma in this!
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Re: Because Piracy
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Re: Because Piracy
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Re: Because Piracy
AAAHAHAHAHA!
AAAHAHAHAHA!
AAAHAHAHAHA!
AAAHAHAHAHA!
AAAHAHAHAHA!
AAAHAHAHAHA!
AA AHAHAHAHA!
Oh wait, you're serious? I guess that if you ignore facts like Hollywood is still making record profits, or even productions from the world's most successful movie franchises that existed long before the dawn of the modern Internet made billions beyond all real cost but have yet to "turn a profit", then you might make the argument that piracy has anything what so ever to do with it. But then, of course, you run the risk of people laughing hysterically every time you speak.
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Sure, but who is foolish enough to fly into what we all keep calling a death sphere?
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Re: Because Piracy
I don't think they've been waiting around a year or so to receive a paycheck.
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Who gets paid?
-from the because-it's-never-been-about-getting-anyone-paid-EXCEPT-studio-bosses dept-
ftfy
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Why don't you pay comment authors?
The argument is all about people having control over their work. If anyone feels like giving away their work, that's their business.
The complaint from the artists is that folks like Big Search come along and just start making money with other people's work. They don't bother to negotiate at all or even ask permission.
It's all about being polite. At least the studios are polite and they ask whether people want to give away their work for free.
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
Mmhahahahahahahaha..err..mmm...ugh I just laughed so hard I knocked the wind out of myself.
The rest of your post is sort of off-topic, which is not really conducive to new or interesting opinions, bob.
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Re: Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
Now I want you to use what most other people have (a brain) and do a hypothetical scenario. Let's pretend you are a mega-star author. You're more famous than Stephen King, Tolkien and CS Lewis put together. You've written a dozen books and they've made you a fortune.
Now, let's pretend that we live in a world where permission is needed for every single instance of someone wanting to use your work. Here's my question: Would you want to be chained to your computer, answering 5 million emails every day from people asking for permission to quote your works in, say, an essay for school?
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*isn't
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
I'm going to be honest with you bob, when my interns go off-topic like this, it usually warrants a skull-crushing via my salmon-tinted meat porpoise. I guarantee it.
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Re: Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
Sure, taking people's work while almost never the royalties they contractually agreed to might be considered "polite"--about as polite as a pit bull kindly growls before biting you.
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
Do you think people will only click on pages to view them if you respond to them? How do you propose this occurs? "Oh, I don't think bob is going to leave his wisdom behind on this story; it's clearly not worth my time"?
Oh, and to the chumps who like to claim "reporting = censorship", as of writing I am responding to a flagged post. Portraying reported posts as irretrievable and unreadable is disingenuous lying, and you know it.
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
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Re: Why don't you pay comment authors?
LOL
Yes, I have you on my reader. Every time you comment I get a notification.
LOL
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This place is consistently the center for hypocrisy on the web.
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What does Floor64 do besides get paid by Google to lobby against IP?
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?? It must be fun to make shit up.
I'm gonna try that.
I'm Batman.
Yes, that is indeed fun.
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Yes, it's only made up if you ignore reality. As you appear to do. But the stories and evidence proves it's very much a reality that routinely takes place, and one where you and yours are happy wagging your fingers at pirates and crying to the high heavens over non-provable losses but at the same time go out of the way to genuinely cheat artists out of money they are owed.
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No, not "so and so forth".
If they never paid those that work for them they wouldn't be allowed to stay in business.
You're trying to incorrectly paint an entire industry with a tinyl brush because you think it might allow you to rationalize ripping off creative people.
It doesn't.
You're
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So you're saying that as long as some people get paid (you might not even need most people to be paid), it's perfectly alright for a few payments to be missed?
And please - the RIAA is the champion of whining to courts that whatever happens, they deserve to stay in business and all competing technology must be shut down, or otherwise impeded. It's funny how judges can be convinced to look the other way when you lobby hard enough.
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Done that as long as I can remember
Theoretical question: how is someone working for free on a big studio show different from someone working for free/spec (same thing in my experience) on a low budg indie/kickstarter/whatever project?
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Re: Done that as long as I can remember
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making mone online
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making mone online
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