Trying to drum up support for a worthy cause, no matter the cause, is akin to pulling teeth.

 In essence, Stop Work-For-Hire is attempting to bring professional artists together in an effort to create a sense of "team" in an increasingly hostile business environment. How does one create a groundswell of support among cliques of small studios and independent artists who feel they do not have an obligation to the larger creative community? Or among cliques who only feel an obligation to look out for their closest friends and associates? 

Creatives are, by nature, independent creatures who tend to believe that working together means losing revenue. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, until we learn to work together, to pool our respective islands of "friends", and to understand implicitly that "what affects you also affects me," we will continue to be taken advantage of by the people and companies who purchase our services.

No matter how long you have been in this business, no matter how many years you have survived as an independent contractor, no matter how many  "friends" you have in your network ... Work-For-Hire affects all of us.  No amount of insulation will prevent the downward spiral of ethics in our industry until we ALL stand together and help educate the individuals who sign restrictive rights documents without understanding the consequences of their signature.

"I don't need a pledge for that," one 'established' designer responded to our query for support, "My friends look out for one another."

This is exactly the narrow mindset we are attempting to change. We didn't have to sign a petition or take a pledge or build a useful web site ... but we did ... because it was necessary.

Standing together means tucking your ego away and putting your name along side other professionals who value honesty and integrity. It doesn't matter if they aren't at your level. Being respected for your experience or talent is useless unless you have the courage and desire to throw that weight around. There are plenty of people out there with "reputations" who talk a big game. Thus far, only a couple of them have lent the cache of their reputations to our cause ...

We can't educate anyone about the importance of learning about issues such as Work-For-Hire and Spec Work when our egos get in the way of doing what is right for the business of all creative professionals.