Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh R
I kind of side with the WGA. If you right a book and publish it you get royalties. If you buy a DVD of a movie for $20, the writer gets 3 cents in residuals. If they didn't have a "Union" or Guild, they wouldn't have gotten even that. The unions and guilds in Hollywood are quite different from say the UAW or the United Steelworkers. By that, I mean they understand that intellectual property like a movie script is portable and can be filmed in places other than Hollywood. The UAW, and their ilk, have seen their "immovable" factories in Michigan move or close after it was too late.
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I believe one point of contention is the writers want more per DVD - 8 cents per copy sold.
The second problem is the internet and how they get paid for downloadable shows. Currently, the studios call episodic television that can be downloaded "promotional material." This would be true if an episode of, say, CSI, were arrayed in clips. However, if a person can download a whole 50-minute episode, with or w/o commercials, it seems to me that falls under material for which residuals should be paid.