About the writers' strike: Via Making Light comes this "Why We Strike" comment from Joss Whedon, creator/writer of Buffy, Angel and Firefly:
. . .‘cause when it comes to the internet and the emerging media there’s nothing there for the artists. There’s no precedent; these media didn’t exist the last time a contract was negotiated. We’re not just talking about an unfair deal, we’re talking about no deal at all. Four cents from the sale of a DVD (the standing WGA deal) sounds exactly as paltry as it is, but in a decade DVD may have gone the way of the eight-track. We have to protect the rights of the people who tell the stories, however they’re told.
Put that way, it seems like it would be similar to the UAW negotiating for a contract just before the oil shock of 1973 and the subsequent collapse in demand for the big cars GM, Ford and Chrysler were making, with no idea that might happen.
Update: Adam Felber has more, in the form of a dialogue:
Bear with me. In 1988, during the last strike, the Writers Guild made a terrible mistake. They assumed that home video sales would never amount to much. So in order to get everyone back to work, they agreed to a deal that gave the studios 80% of the revenues from home video before calculating the writers li’l 1 or 2 percent.Posted by Linkmeister at November 7, 2007 08:37 AM | TrackBackWhat!?
Yes, that’s right. The assumption was that it would take the studios that 80% to recoup production, packaging and advertising costs. So the writers’ tiny percentage came from the remaining 20% of revenues.
But… but…
I know. Nobody saw how cheap and profitable the production of DVDs was going to be. Billions of dollars are being made, and writers see less than half a percent of it.
So that’s what the writers are fighting for. A bigger cut of DVD residuals.
Sort of. But as of Sunday’s negotiating session, the writers were even willing to let that stand.
What!? But - but - but…
Believe it or not, right now the writers are more worried about not letting this happen again with all the new methods of distribution and revenue, like the internet.