Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times argues that entertainment writers should become writer-entrepreneurs. He writes:

Visiting a UCLA film class the other night, I was asked to name the most influential filmmakers of our era. The choices were pretty obvious: Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, John Lasseter, George Lucas. . . . As the names spilled out, I realized they all have something in common. They’re filmmaker-entrepreneurs, artists-turned-businessmen who helped start their own companies to further their work, became financially independent and created a world that operates under a radically different set of rules from the vacuous studio assembly lines. It’s telling that the current strike is about new media yet both sides seem to be following old-school models.

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The WGA is fighting the good fight. But the glory days of “Norma Rae” are gone. Real change in today’s world comes from the energy and ideas of entrepreneurs, not from labor negotiations.