A brotherhood (and sisterhood) of iPhone app writers
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, December 8 2009
This is pretty clever, and not just because it makes good blog fodder. You've probably noticed in recent years that labor unions have scrambled to establish themselves as relevant in the digital space, trying to lay down the foundation for labor there as more and more content moves online. That has been, of course, the biggest point of contention in some of the pitched battles we've seen in the TV industry and a handful of related strikes. Well, the Writers Guild East is really trying to get ahead of the game by organizing the writers of, yes, iPhone apps:
The writers of iLarious have just become the first writers of content for an iPhone app to be represented by a labor union, the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). Under this agreement writers for apps such as “This Just In” (which delivers 10-15 jokes a day to the iPhone) will get to count their jokes written for the app towards WGAE health insurance and other benefits. Comedy writers covered by this new agreement hail from "The Daily Show", "The Onion", "Human Giant" and "Saturday Night Live" among other famous comedy programs.