Mark Cuban has always had a reputation for being an ass (Google him and you'll get more than enough information on that) and while I have never cared before (as I don't live in Dallas and aren't confronted with Cuban news) his dickishness has now creeped onto my turf and I feel that it it is necessary to address an issue that is seemingly become popular these days:
Asking creative people to give up work for free.
Now, as a writer I expect to do a certain amount of writing for free (which I, and all the writers do for Forces of Geek) so as to stay on the radar career-wise and parlay that into jobs that pay (which have resulted from being on FOG!) , or I will work on projects with fellow writers/artist/whatevers in what is considered a barter system (if you help me build my website, I'll contribute to your blog, etc. etc.) which happens all the time.
But when a billionaire (or a company that has a budget to hire people) asks creative people to do something major without paying them for the work, it is then that I have a problem.
Here's what sparked my pisstivity (taken from Cuban's Maverick blog):
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