Ink Runs Dry

In early November the Writers Guild of America went on strike to protest unfair usage of their material by production studios. We are now three months in, the writers have been on strike every since with no signs of the strike coming to an end. This strike has mainly effected television at the current time, as it relies on constant writing to keep series in production. In the mean time most networks have shown some reruns here, some movies there, and put Deal or No Deal on five nights a week.

Most Americans, though annoyed that CSI has run out of new episodes, have probably not been interested enough to find out what the writers are actually striking about, so let us take a look real quick at what the writers are demanding. It basically boils down to two disagreements, one which the writers call the main point of the strike, and the other a long held demand. Let us look at them in reverse order, as understanding the minor demand will help us better understand the major demand.

• Disagreement Number 2: This one takes a tad bit of history to explain. Back in the early 1980s when "home video" was the big new thing -- remember VHS, anybody? -- the studios requested that the writers take a very small percentage (0.3%) of those sales as their pay for writing a successfully selling movie or TV show -- this comes out to writers making about 4 cents per DVD sold today. The reasons the studios gave for giving the writers (remember, these are the people who's creative talents birthed these TV shows and movies) such a low percentage was that the "home video" market was new and nobody really knew if it would ever be profitable. The writers, though unhappy with the deal, agreed to it with the understanding that the deal would be renegotiated if "home video" proved ever to be a profitable market. Today home video is the majority of the entertainment media market, and the studios have refused to renegotiate the writers' pay in the last twenty-five years. The writers are currently asking for this percentage to be doubled (that would be 8 cents per DVD, or around $8000 after the sale of 100,000 DVDs).



• Disagreement Number 1: Production studios believe that they have the right to sell TV shows and movies online through pay download sites, such as iTunes, and distribute these creative works through other modern means without paying the writers of these shows and movies their fair share. The writers disagree. The studios are, once again, asking the writers to wait a while before they negotiate a deal to get paid for these sales because it is, once again, an "unproven market." Well, the writers have heard this story before, and they are not putting up with it this time. Not to mention the flawed logic of the studios: As shrewed business men, why are you involved in a market that does not make money? Or, oh wait, are you lying about it being an unprofitable market? The writers believe they should be paid, at the very least, the same tiny percentage (the above mentioned 0.3%) of sales of this media as they receive from home video sales.

That is basically what the writers are demanding. Doesn't seem too serious, does it? Well, the studios are refusing to meet their demands. Screen writers aren't exactly your normal blue-collar working-man strikers, but they are people trying to provide food and housing for their families just like everybody else in this capitalistic rat-race, and they are not asking for anything that would not seem fair to a five year old. It is merely the greed of production studios, trying to snatch up every last penny of their sales to line their gold plated money bags, that is keeping them from making an agreement with the Writers Guild.

"If they gave us everything we had on the table right now, if they gave us everything we wanted—everything—and they then made a deal with the DGA and matched it, which is what they'll do, and then they made a deal with the Screen Actors Guild and tripled it, which is typically what happens…if they did that—if they gave us everything—on a company-by-company basis they would be giving all of us less than each of their CEOs makes in a year. And in some cases, a lot less."
Patric Verrone, Futurama writer and WGAW president

According to Forbes 2007 CEO Compensation report: Disney CEO, Robert Iger, reported compensation of $29.9 million; News Corp (FOX) CEO, Rupert Murdoch, received $29.9 million; CBS CEO, Leslie Moonves, look home $24.8 million. Those are the top production studio CEO earnings, after that there is a swift drop to Viacom's CEO, Philippe Dauman, making a measly $9 million in 2007. These CEOs are padding their pockets instead of paying their workers. This is what the writers' strike is about: corporate greed.

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Honestly, I thought this whole ordeal would blow over in a couple months with the studios doing the only thing they can do: fold to the writers demands. However, it seems like their greed is not going to give in without a struggle. Here is what we as Americans can do, what I am going to do, and what I call on everybody else to do:

• Stop watching television. It's just reruns and reality-shit anyways. If the studios can't sell ad time, they have no reason to be on the air.
• Stop buying and renting DVDs. TV shows, movies, all of it. Squeeze the studios, and they will be forced to listen. Bought a DVD in the last few days? Take it back. Subscribe to Netflix or something similar? Cancel your membership and let them know why. (Sure, they aren't really responsible, but we have to be broad here.)
• Stop going to movies. You'll be left with nothing else to do, I'm sure, but we as the people must stand together, with the workers, in the fight against corporate greed. The people joining together is the only strength of the worker in this country.
• Spread the word and the love. Get other people to give up TV, movies and DVDs, and (most importantly) alert other people to the workers struggle in the United States and our need to stand together.

If, however, you feel the need to illegally download movies, steal DVDs, sneak into movie theaters, I'm not really sure I can condemn this...

Besides, it's about time we all had a really good reason to go outside and actually live life.

Sources:
www.wikipedia.com
www.marketwatch.com
www.forbes.com