Essentials  
 
     Site Home
List of Past Entries
Email Me
What Is This Site?
Wedding Website
 
  Flickr Photo Sets  
 
     [More...]
 
  Photo Gallery  
 
     Browse All
Our Wedding - April 29, 2006
NYC 2005
Puerto Vallarta 2005
Iowa City X-Mas 2004
John Edwards Rally
Michael Moore
Summerset State Park
Kerry Edwards Rally
Pella / Ellinwood
Howell Tree Farm 2004
NYC 2004
Worlds of Fun 2004
Balloons 2004
New Orleans / Pensacola 2004
Chicago 2004
New House
NYC 2003
Harkin Steakfry 2003
Adventureland 2003
Ballooning 2003
[More...]
 
  Daily Reads  
 
     Aint It Cool News
Bateman Cartoons
Cinescape
Dark Horizons
IGN
Slate
Spoiler Fix
Television Without Pity
The Onion
Working for Change
 
  Other Blogs  
 
     Benn's Journal
Brian Stevens
C:\Pirillo.exe
Carrie
Dave Barry
Gretchen
Grrl Bonnie
Jake's Jive
Jessica's Journal
JoshWest.com
Kacie's Chatter
Mackenzie
PhilBlog
RedHead Ramblings
RickSite
Special K
The Dream of 95
Tom's World
Wil Wheaton
 
  Liberal Fun  
 
     Bateman Cartoons
Cheney Segway
GWBush04.com
This Modern World
Working for Change
 
  General Oddity  
 
     All Your Base…
Bubb Rubb
HumanForSale
IKPuppet
Kikkoman
PPI
They Fight Crime!
Wrath
Zombie Infection
Zombo.com
 
  Work  
 
     CrossPaths.net
FBX Internet
Iowa Telecom
iSpot ACCESS
Topis Technologies
 
  Copyright  
 
     ©2005 Jason Cross
All Rights Reserved
 

Wednesday, November 14, 2007     
  
LOST's Damon Lindelof Talk About the Writers Guild Strike
    

As many know, the Writers Guild of America went on strike last week over the issue of receiving royalties from Internet distribution.  Should the strike continue through the end of the year, nearly all shows on TV currently will end mid-season.  The show 24 has delayed its upcoming season indefinitely until the strike is over as they don't want to risk a break in the season as it airs.

Damon Lindelof, head writer and co-creator of LOST, wrote a great article about the strike and the future of the TV medium.  Here's an excerpt:

The Writers Guild of America (of which I am a proud member) has gone on strike. I have spent the past week on the picket line outside Walt Disney Studios, my employer, chanting slogans and trudging slowly across the crosswalk.

The motivation for this drastic action — and a strike is drastic, a fact I grow more aware of every passing day — is the guild’s desire for a portion of revenues derived from the Internet. This is nothing new: for more than 50 years, writers have been entitled to a small cut of the studios’ profits from the reuse of our shows or movies; whenever something we created ends up in syndication or is sold on DVD, we receive royalties. But the studios refuse to apply the same rules to the Internet.

My show, “Lost,” has been streamed hundreds of millions of times since it was made available on ABC’s Web site. The downloads require the viewer to first watch an advertisement, from which the network obviously generates some income. The writers of the episodes get nothing. We’re also a hit on iTunes (where shows are sold for $1.99 each). Again, we get nothing.

You can read the whole article here.

While I'm not happy with the idea that my favorite shows might end mid-season, I completely agree with the motivations behind the strike.  Writers deserve to be paid for non-traditional distribution.  It's often the work of a good team of writers more than anything that makes a show great or not - shows like LOST, Battlestar Galactica, House and Heroes turn on the strength of their writers - and those writers deserve their fair share as distribution moves into the future.

   
Posted by Jason on 11/14/2007 at 7:47:19 AM #




Previous Month March 2024

Next Month

S M T W T F S
27 28 29 30 31 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 1 2 3 4 5 6

Fear the wrath of Sparky!