We initially passed this press release from the Author's Guild along to Gothamist Jen so that she could get the scoop on Gawker and FishbowlNY. Why? Because it looks like the Author's Guild along with the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, have come through with an $18 million dollar settlement for copyright infringement by companies like Time, Inc., The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for republishing freelancer's content online without their permission.

Of course you know we're the open-internet, "bits should be free" types, but no less than David Byrne recently argued that the RIAA was misrepresenting the facts when it came to the royalty arrangements with artists. Just like most musicians looking for gigs, freelance writers need to earn a living through piece work. It seems the New York Times was more than happy to require registration and charge for their archives while infringing on the copy rights of their stringers. Finally, a corporation being told they can't have it both ways.

Luckily, the 'Gate is a union shop, from what we understand. But soon, SFist could be, too! Because looking into this story, we found that the National Writers Union has very affordable dues and a pretty low threshhold in terms of professional experience for membership:

You are eligible for membership if you have published a book, a play, three articles, five poems, a short story, or an equal amount of newsletter, publicity, technical, commercial, government, or institutional copy. You are also eligible for membership if you have written an equal amount of unpublished material and are actively writing and attempting to publish your work.

We've published a book! And three articles! And we've got unpublished material up the yin-yang! We're currently signing up online for a six-month membership that's only $55. We're gonna be a card carryin' union blogger in no time, five years ahead of schedule!