Why the writers' guild is on strike

[unixronin]

Thanks to dafydd, a very clear explanation of the problem.

Capsule summary of the video he embeds: 

Many years ago, after a long- protracted fight, Hollywood finally agreed to pay writers a "residual" fee of 2.5% when something they wrote was re-broadcast on network TV.  The agreement applied only to material written after the agreement, so Hollywood has never paid a writer a cent for reruns of, for example, I Love Lucy, which has been rebroadcast continuously for fifty years and made hundreds of millions of dollars for the studios ... of which no writer ever saw a single cent.

22 years ago, Hollywood asked writers to accept a "temporary" 80% pay cut on that 2.5% residuals fee, for programming released on VHS tape, "for promotional purposes".  Unwisely, the writers agreed.  That "temporary" cut is still in effect, and applies to DVDs as well now, despite the burgeoning market that doesn't need any further "promotion".  And if you watch something on streaming video, Hollywood doesn't pay the writer anything at all.

So when you spend $20 on a movie or TV show on DVD, the writer gets ... four cents.  Watch the same show on streaming video, with no manufacturing, shipping or warehousing cost for the studio, and the writer doesn't make a cent — just like before the broadcast residuals agreement.

So what are the writers asking for?  They're asking for another four cents per DVD — in other words, they're asking for one quarter of that "temporary" pay cut back, after more than twenty years — and they're asking to be paid for streaming video reruns at the same rate as syndicated network reruns.

Not much to ask, is it?  But you can guess what Hollywood answered.

And that's why the writers are on strike.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Is that much worse than what recording artists get from the RIAA companies?

I believe that's called "damning with faint praise". ;)

I think it is criminal to make a fortune on creative people's work, and never pay them anything substantial. I thought that slavery was outlawed.

I think it's a prime example of "Do as we say, not as we do".... they rip off their artists, steal their artists' copyright to their own work, then complain that anyone who makes a copy of a CD for a friend is stealing "from the artisis", and takes them to court because "we're only trying to protect the artists."

Yeah, that kind of "protection" we've heard of before ...
"Nice career you have here. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it." [crack knuckles]

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I think you and I both know not to expect honesty from anyone that, essentially, makes their living by stealing from others.