The major studio writers are on strike starting today. They are
interested in obtaining royalties or monetary compensation for their
work that airs online. I think the studios are moving slow and can
not agree on how money will be made in the future are have been
unwilling to commit. Most of these people have contracts with terms
well into the future that were defined a long time ago and thus have
terms that make no mention of use online.
Many major TV shows, including The Daily Show, may need to revert to
reruns today because they depend on writers for up-to-the-minute
scripts.
This is really a major shakeup for the industry. Many people expect
this to go unresolved for months.
What will happen next? How does or can this effect videobloggers?
http://news.google.com/news?hl=enq=writers
+strikeum=1ie=UTF-8sa=Ntab=wn
Hollywood writers' strike begins as talks collapse
2 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AFP) Hollywood writers went on strike Monday after
last-minute talks aimed at ending a standoff between studios and
wordsmiths collapsed, with the union demanding a share of cash
brought in from DVDs and online distribution of shows.
The strike is on, Writers Guild of America spokeswoman Sherry
Goldman told AFP.
The strike deadline was a minute into Monday in each US time zone,
meaning writers in New York City were the first to walk off their
jobs, according to Goldman.
An 11th-hour negotiating session was held with the help of a federal
mediator Sunday, but it broke down without achieving any results.
Members of the 12,000-strong union plan to begin picketing Monday
morning at major studios in the Los Angeles area and outside NBC
studio at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
The first casualties of the walk-out are likely to be talk shows,
soap operas, and comedy programs that rely on fresh scripts.
Major motion picture studios and television programs typically have
stockpiles of scripts that can insulate them from feeling the effects
of the strike for a year or longer.
Writers want a greater share of residual profits from television
series sold on DVDs and money made from programs shown on the
Internet, cellular phones, and other new media outlets.
Producers acknowledge that online viewing is increasing and promise
to study the issue, but argue that it is too early to say how
profitable it will be.
Writers are determined not to repeat a mistake made decades earlier,
when they underestimated how lucrative home video sales would become
and settled for a contract that gives them just three cents of each
DVD film sale.
The biggest sticking point is new media, new technology, Goldman
said after the strike began. Our mantra is, 'if they get paid, we
get paid'.
Writers get 1.2 percent of revenues from shows streamed online for
one-time viewing but get nothing from content downloaded to own from
websites such as iTunes.
This technology has boomed, Goldman said. We need to get paid for
new media, she said, rattling off new-fangled ways movies now are
viewed, including webisodes, mobisodes and snippets.
More of this is being shown on computer screens and we get nothing,
she said.
For example, if an entire blockbuster film supported by ads is shown
free of charge on the Internet, writers get no money because studios
label the display promotional.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has
refused to discuss anything related to new media in negotiations
during the past three months, Goldman said.
There is no common ground, the union spokeswoman said.
Producers reject the guild's demands as unworkable and too expensive,
setting the stage for the first major strike by Hollywood writers in
nearly 20 years.
The strike call came after talks between the guild and the AMPTP
broke down hours before an existing agreement expired on October 31.
We are very disappointed with ... the action they took, Nicholas
Counter, president of the AMPTP, said of the unionists.
Counter contends that the union's public argument is laden with
falsehoods, misstatements and inaccuracies and promised specifics
at a later date.
Industry analysts predict a lengthy shutdown lasting several months,
with one estimate of potential losses set at more than one billion
dollars.
A WGA strike in 1988 lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry an
estimated 500 million dollars.
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