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Comment by intrasight | Hacker News Reader

My opinion is that they shouldn't care and in fact have no basis to complain. I consider it "work for hire", and they are being paid handsomely for their work. Do we developers complain when, if we work for Apple, that Apple takes credit for our work?

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“Other workers are trying to get a better deal than me and should cut it out” is one of my least-favorite opinions on labor matters.

The entire point is that they’re not being paid handsomely, they’re being taken advantage of. Did you even read past the headline?

Most pop hits are written by a dozen middle-aged Scandinavian men. I'm sure they are paid very handsomely.

Again, try reading the article before commenting.

I've read plenty on this topic. Believe me, those writers who reliably put out hits have NO problem paying their rent.

Have you read the article? "Credit" here is not meant as recognition, it's meant as retribution. Performers put their name down as writers/producers despite being no part of the songwriting process, taking a cut from the writer's revenue, and additionally get revenue for their performance + merch, concert tickets, etc.

Most songwriters write songs then shop them around. They're not typically freelancers writing a song for an act for pay. They're like small software shops writing source code, and then the company that licenses that code, compiles it, and sells it is wanting a copyright on the source and royalties on other licenses sold.

You get whatever you and your legal team negotiate. Just like in any other business contract.

Yes, and when you regularly ask too much of the other party in those negotiations they band together and ask you to stop. Much like what's happening in the story.

Then they go on twitter and make it into a moral imperative to demonize you. Just part of negotiations.

They claim writers are struggling to pay their rent, so I think the premise that they are being paid handsomely is in dispute.

Even if developers don't get direct credit, just having these big names in their CV increases their value massively.

I'm sure these songwriters put those big names on their CVs too

>they are being paid handsomely for their work

Seems like someone didn't read the article...

> they are being paid handsomely for their work.

I think the complaint is that they aren't being paid "adequately", but without actual numbers it's hard to tell. I suspect few of them are making SV developer salaries.

I suspect that the average is much higher than an SV salary. And the standard deviation is much higher too. More like in sports.

Well, sure, but the median is probably quite low.

Again - similar to sports. Is somewhat of a "winner take all" market.

no, but maybe we should

Is simple. Just remove "work for hire" from your contract.

Have you read their contract?

If you're being taken advantage of because of X it's a safe bet you don't have an anti-X clause in your contract...

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