What bloggers need is a union.
I was reading the article about how bloggers need to protect their sources even from gov’t subpoenas. And what bloggers need is a union/association.
Just a disclaimer, I don’t count myself as a blogger, this blog is just a way to bs a little about general things, and once in a while give updates about the site. So consider this a post from an unbiased position.
Anyways, bloggers and unions. The reason bloggers roll over and play dead whenever they get asked to reveal sources, is because blogging is by it’s nature doesn’t make that much money. Even the top 1% of bloggers only make enough to make ends meet. The big blogs like Techcrunch with millions in revenue are pretty much outliers.
So when you get asked to reveal your sources, you really can’t expect to fight it legally, since you don’t have the money for it. And as long as bloggers give up sources, blogging will never be considered real media. Because real media protects their sources. They have huge legal teams to fight any lawsuit or gov’t inquiry, so that they only have to reveal their sources only when the court orders them to.
So to gain legitimacy, bloggers should band together and start a union/association.
I don’t mean a union where you strike unless Adsense gives you all $5 CPM. No…what I mean is a union that makes it easy for bloggers to put their resources together.
Bloggers would pay $40-60 a month, and in exchange the union will give them legal help. Legal help would be provided from donations(monthly drives where every blogger puts up the please donate to the union promo), membership fees and some lawyer bloggers volunteers
Think of it as ACLU for bloggers.
Obviously there’ll need to be some extra perks and benefits, maybe a union wide subscription to istockphoto, maybe a database of contacts, maybe a guest post exchange program, maybe discounted health insurance offers…basically you have to make that subscription worth it, even if you never need legal help.
Of course this union can’t and shouldn’t accept everyone willy nilly. If it did, you’d have all the scammers paying $40 to get free legal advice, for the next time their Acai Berry Flog gets sued. So the union would have to develop an approval process that only lets real blogs in and kicks people who break the rules out. The rules should stay really simple too, you don’t want to censor people. The rules should just be aimed at the flogs and blogs who promote illegal things.
This would have to be a world wide association, because it’s usually the bloggers outside the United States that need the most help. And if they have protection from the union, it’d be that much harder to silence them.
So here is the idea, it should probably be spearheaded by one of the larger blogs, to give it some legitimacy.
So get on it…
