timdaniels.com

2007-11-12

Why is there a writers strike?


  • Writers get royalties: for books, for songs, for literary works.

  • For legal reasons studios want to be considered the “author” of a movie, so screenwriters transfer “authorship” to the studios in exchange for a bunch of rights and residuals.

  • The studios and the Writer's Guild disagree about what rate is fair for work distributed over the internet.

  • Since internet distribution will eventually replace DVDs, a bad rate would result in a pay cut for writers.

  • That’s why there’s a strike.


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