I love guilds. I know the article mixes the term with unions, but they are truly different. For a union the primary weapon is withholding of labor by many (repl

I love guilds. I know the article mixes the term with unions, but they are truly different. For a union the primary weapon is withholding of labor by many (replaceable) individual members. Guilds however do not need large numbers to be powerful. They are composed of skilled (ie: less replaceable) artisans and small businesses, and have power by actually owning and wielding property/capital. If there were a "software engineers guild" today it would retain the power to withdraw rights to the intellectual property of its members from any company behaving unethically. Much like how guests visiting a home for a party are expected to behave, a guild works with businesses that are well behaved and punishes those that are not. It holds both its members and outsiders wishing to contract with it to ethical standards that our legal system cannot because it is too gray area. Sort of like how one decides not to invite a bad guest over to the home again. eg: Situations such as FB/Instagram blatantly copying Snapchat features, or Apple sherlocking F.lux with Nightshift while not illegal, could be judged as unethical by members. If unresponsive to pressure to make things right, the guild could respond by withdrawing rights to use its member-owned-IP from the offending company. eg: Imagine certain OSS licenses having a stipulation that one be in "good standing" with the associated guild in order to use it. It only takes a small number of artisans with property to have quite an arsenal. A guild with just a few of the big names in the OSS community would be formidable. Ageism, monopolies, and many other threats out there easily fall down. Remember: guilds went up against kings in the middle ages and often held their own. One last thing: Unions do not own common-stock, but guilds certainly do. In fact they would even seek to become majority holders. This aligns interests of the members with company success. Guilds also have to hold members to a very high standard. There is much more to guilds vs. unions however I'll stop there. One can dream.