WGA on strike
Nov. 5th, 2007 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauraanne_gilmanfrom a WGA member's report on a pre-strike meeting:
"The bottom line is the complete intransigence of the producers on the
issue of the internet. They refuse to discuss any issues unless and until
the WGA takes Internet completely off the table.
The producers want there to be very, very, very little paid on the internet
sale of programs (downloads) and nothing paid on what they declare to be
promotional usages. And they have declared that showing complete films
or complete episodes of television series on the internet -- even with
commercials or other forms of revenue generation -- is strictly promotional
and no payments are due to the writers. (Or anyone else, which will be the
position they'll take when the SAG, DGA, and below-the-line contracts
come next year.) And it's pretty clear that, in the next ten years, pretty
much all television will be watched on the internet. So this proposal would
go along way to destroying a lot of people's livelihoods."
As a writer, as someone who depends upon being fairly compensated for my work, in all forms (print, electronic) and all delivery means (paper, digital, visual, aural, Yet to Be Invented), I support the strike and the striking workers.
I will not watch any new projects created during the strike period (they anticipate 4-5 episodes [to mid-December] already in the can on most shows) using non-union writers. Any show using non-union writers will go off my viewing rotation.
It's not much. But it's all I can do.
"The bottom line is the complete intransigence of the producers on the
issue of the internet. They refuse to discuss any issues unless and until
the WGA takes Internet completely off the table.
The producers want there to be very, very, very little paid on the internet
sale of programs (downloads) and nothing paid on what they declare to be
promotional usages. And they have declared that showing complete films
or complete episodes of television series on the internet -- even with
commercials or other forms of revenue generation -- is strictly promotional
and no payments are due to the writers. (Or anyone else, which will be the
position they'll take when the SAG, DGA, and below-the-line contracts
come next year.) And it's pretty clear that, in the next ten years, pretty
much all television will be watched on the internet. So this proposal would
go along way to destroying a lot of people's livelihoods."
As a writer, as someone who depends upon being fairly compensated for my work, in all forms (print, electronic) and all delivery means (paper, digital, visual, aural, Yet to Be Invented), I support the strike and the striking workers.
I will not watch any new projects created during the strike period (they anticipate 4-5 episodes [to mid-December] already in the can on most shows) using non-union writers. Any show using non-union writers will go off my viewing rotation.
It's not much. But it's all I can do.
