In other words: You should not allow others to get rich on your labour. Instead make a company and get rich on other people's labour?
The work of some is worth, at least fiscally, more than others. I’m not justifying that or defending it. I’m just saying that my work is not as financially valuable as Tim Cook’s (for example), which is easily demonstrated.
The same would occur under this reality. Let’s say I create this awesome new Widget and I retain the rights. The Widget goes on to make my employer billions and I get millions in royalties. That’s effectively our current system.
And what about issues like confidentiality and conflict of interest? If I own my work and my agency decides to do business with, say, Vivendi, then what prevents me from screwing over my agency and giving the same or extremely similar content to, say, Disney?
I’m not asking to rhetorically write off what you say or refute it. These are the questions my mind went to as someone who owns his own small business where creating and manipulating IP for clients is a nontrivial part of our output.
I don't know if you're familiar with this American folk legend.. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore)
- unionizing
- union vote against signing IP assignment
- royalty agreement (like in music business)
- state legislation to make IP transfers between individual and corporation illegal
on individual level:
- refusing to sign IP assignment
- if possible, founding your own company with money extracted from labour and keeping the IP for yourself