This contract from the Middle Ages illustrates the dynamic between publishers and producers.

The textile industry’s frequent payment of wages that are scarcely enough for employees and their families to live on is no modern phenomenon. In 1351, the clothmaker fellows in Speyer fought against what they felt was unfair pay by refusing to work. The drop in production this caused forced the guild masters to negotiate higher wages with their fellows. The strike became and has remained a weapon of wage fairness to this day.

»We the guild masters and members of the clothmakers’ guild in Speyer publicly announce that we settled the dispute between us and the weavers. They had complained about unduly low wages, which did not secure their livelihood, and had abandoned their work for that reason …«