Having been in NYC nearly my whole life and the entire time seen a culture of contractors getting fucked over on payment, especially in entertainment/media/fashion/advertising, this is a great, GREAT day.

Animation studios here are among the worst. Most people I know had to fight for months to get paid and many did years of work without ever getting paid. YEARS. Like they did it for the love or something.

A few years back, a whole studio was contracted for a project and mid-way to completion the client came to them and said "I spoke to God and He told me not to do this project" and walked away from it and never paid for anything. The studio didn't even have any kind of protection against this sort of thing.

You can't imagine how bad an environment this is for getting paid for creative work. Indefinite illegal internships, lowball salaries and "for the exposure" jobs abound. Folks are so desperate to come and work here that they put up with it -- I just don't know how they afford it.