Alternate Author Compensation Models: The FWP
One of the arguments advanced in favour of copyright-based compensation is that:
- Authors must be paid. (Agreed.)
- That payment must be based on the quantity of work produced and sold. (Disagreed.)
Wage income ultimately provides for both 1) the living costs of workers and their families as well as 2) opportunity risks and costs of production. (Adam Smith's 240+ year old five-factor analysis of components of wage prices remains excellent, cogent, and relevant.)
Under FDR's New Deal, the Federal Writers Project directly hired and supported numerous American writers, many of whom went on to become classics of the country's literary canon, among them Zora Neale Hurston, Kenneth Rexroth and John Cheever, Saul Bellow, Studs Terkel, Nelson Algren and Richard Wright.
Contrast with Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens, who found himself blacklisted and unemployable in San Francisco, with a nickel and a revolver to his name. The nickel for if he was unable to come up with money, the revolver for when he had to spend the nickel. Even after achieving literary success, Clemens struggled with money troubles for his entire life, succeeding largely on the support of his father-in-law.
An LA Times article on the FWP:
#writing #writers #authors #authorship #copyright #NewDeal #FederalWritersProject
