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

[house-pundit.livejournal.com]

And people wonder why so much of TV sucks? These writers are better than the guys in line behind them, but there's a lot of creative talent that looks at that industry and decides to pick a different outlet for their abilities.

Books, it's not about who you know, it's about what you can do. I've heard, but don't know personally, that who you know does matter in Hollywood. Still, that just means there's a lot of talent picking other creative outlets.

Some of those outlets may not even be what people consider "creative". I was a database programmer for five years. I write SF at the book level because Baen pays me. If Baen didn't pay me, I'd still write, but I wouldn't spend as much time on it. Programming, if you're good, requires you to think out of the box. Creativity. It pays a lot better than writing.

People always underestimate the other choices these folks can do with reasonable happiness while doing it.

I do it. They buy it. You pay me.

Otherwise, we can take that ability to think outside the box any number of places other than "starving artist" jobs.