WGA Strike 2007(-8? -9?)

[Jigsaw Forte]

WGA Site: http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2204
LJ Comm: http://community.livejournal.com/wga_supporters/

TL;DR: The writer's contract expired and now they want a little more money on home video sales and a little money, period,  for that "Brand New Wild n'Crazy Thing", the internet. They didn't get it. They went on strike.

Who can blame 'em?

[bill]

I heard that the DVD sales thing was the biggest part of the strike. Basically, back in the old days, it was OK for there to be low royalties on VHS sales, as only a few sad-sacks who wanted an entire season of The Next Generation taking up a whole shelf for $200 would buy them. Now, you can get entire seasons for $50, in a small size, and DVD sales have gone through the roof.

[thegayhare]

part of it is that they got screwed out of royalties for video tapes because the technology was too new and the companies claimed they didn't know if they would make money.  Now that dvd's and internet veiwing and downloads are popular the companies are still saying "It's too new we don't know if we are going to make any money"  and the writers have called bullshit to that.  personaly I think the writers are correct here though it's anoying to have to watch reruns of the daily show I hope they do well

[Valynth]

There's also the fact that unlike VHS, DVDs don't deteriorate with age, reducing the likely hood of a consumer buying the show again.

[Damaris]

That's untrue.  If stored improperly, th glue holding the two layers of DVD together can degrade, causing the DVD to become unwatchable.  We've had it happen with several discs in our collection. (However, we have over 700 movies/TV seasons in our collection, so there's a lot of discs.)

[Jigsaw Forte]

That's untrue.  If stored improperly, th glue holding the two layers of DVD together can degrade, causing the DVD to become unwatchable.  We've had it happen with several discs in our collection. (However, we have over 700 movies/TV seasons in our collection, so there's a lot of discs.)

Either way, internet downloads damn well don't deteriorate with age, unless being encoded in an obsolete format counts.

[Dannysaysnoo]

That's untrue.  If stored improperly, th glue holding the two layers of DVD together can degrade, causing the DVD to become unwatchable.  We've had it happen with several discs in our collection. (However, we have over 700 movies/TV seasons in our collection, so there's a lot of discs.)

Either way, internet downloads damn well don't deteriorate with age, unless being encoded in an obsolete format counts.

Even Then, you could probably just download an obsolete program to play it. And a s far as i can see, VLC is the only media player that you need.

[Tapewolf]

Either way, internet downloads damn well don't deteriorate with age, unless being encoded in an obsolete format counts.

Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.  Apart from obsolete formats, you also have disk crashes, bit flips on the disk drive/backup tape (Damaris has mentioned optical disk rot) and DRM to contend with.

e.g. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/07/mlb-rips-off-fans-wh.html

[Dannysaysnoo]

Either way, internet downloads damn well don't deteriorate with age, unless being encoded in an obsolete format counts.

Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.  Apart from obsolete formats, you also have disk crashes, bit flips on the disk drive/backup tape (Damaris has mentioned optical disk rot) and DRM to contend with.

e.g. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/07/mlb-rips-off-fans-wh.html

So we have absolutely no way of preserving our media completely effectively? i am sad.

[Tapewolf]

So we have absolutely no way of preserving our media completely effectively? i am sad.

Short of stone tablets, no.  One of the reasons I like mag tape is actually it's relative simplicity - imagine trying to reconstruct a SACD player in 50 years' time.  Much of it is deliberately obscured for DRM reasons, whereas for audio tape all you need is something that can pull a length of the stuff across an electromagnet at exactly 15 inches a seconds.  The other advantage is that although it degrades, we know how to restore it, and we can do a pretty good job of restoring celluloid as well.  Digital mediums?  Too early to tell, but I'm not holding out much hope.

Ironically the best way to preserve things is multiple redundant copies.  Napster, for example, had episodes of The Burkiss Way which even the BBC have lost.

[Fuyudenki]

the screenwriters' guild is on strike?

Good.  Screw 'em.  Maybe we'll get some almost-decent movies, now.

Now if we could just get the VFX guilds to strike, too.
Or just a small-scale nuclear drop on Hollywood itself.

Can you tell I don't like Hollywood?

[Netrogo]

Well this explains why my agent suddenly stopped calling. Fucking writers

[KarlOmega1]

I wonder if this will force Hollywood to hire overseas writers...like from Japan or the UK*.

(* My mother likes the show "Are You Being Served?" ... and I can see why! XD )

[bill]

I wonder if this will force Hollywood to hire overseas writers...like from Japan or the UK*.

(* My mother likes the show "Are You Being Served?" ... and I can see why! XD )

If none of them ever want to work on a Hollywood project, or any US TV project ever again, then yes.

[RobbieThe1st]

Media wise, I am hoping that sooner or later crystal encoding will become common and cheap enough to work fine, or, failing that, once you get flash memory down to as cheap as hard-disks - that stuff seems so far to be good and while you may have a limited number of write cycles, you don't need many for archive use.
I am looking forward to being able to buy 2-inch-square or so, unbreakable cubes(all the hardware needed to read it is inside, and the rest of the space is filled with plastic) that can store oh... 100gb of data, for perhaps $25-50. The technology is around, its just not quite cheap enough yet.

Of course, so far, I haven't had any trouble keeping two hard-disk copies of all my files, and hard-disks are pretty cheap any more.

As for DRM, with any luck it will die a horrible, horrible death, and we will finally be rid of this blight to mankind. Fortunately, the internet seems to agree on this, and, if you look around, there are plenty of ways to remove DRM. I *am* worried about the TC chips however.


-RobbieThe1st

[Shadrok]

the screenwriters' guild is on strike?

Good.  Screw 'em.  Maybe we'll get some almost-decent movies, now.

Now if we could just get the VFX guilds to strike, too.
Or just a small-scale nuclear drop on Hollywood itself.

Can you tell I don't like Hollywood?

SIGGRAPH on the east coast.

[Tapewolf]

Media wise, I am hoping that sooner or later crystal encoding will become common and cheap enough to work fine, or, failing that, once you get flash memory down to as cheap as hard-disks - that stuff seems so far to be good and while you may have a limited number of write cycles, you don't need many for archive use.

Flash isn't for long-term storage.  Like E2PROM, it's basically a charge store and will revert to it's default state in around 20 years, less if exposed to UV or other radiation sources.  The nanomechanical memory that someone was developing might be better, though.

I'm not sure what you meant by crystal encoding.  Technically that's how phase-change media works, but that's probably not what you meant...

Of course, so far, I haven't had any trouble keeping two hard-disk copies of all my files, and hard-disks are pretty cheap any more.

That's what I'm doing at the moment, but the software I'm using (rsync-backup) doesn't have provision to tell if the data on disk has changed (md5sum or suchlike)

[RJ]

And now stagehands for Broadway have gone on strike. That includes Monty Python's 'Spamalot'!

[Alondro]

Hmm, this could benefit small independent production companies like mine!  Especially the non-profit ones, since as 501(c)3's, they do not have to be unionized.

[bill]

You're assuming that nobody that works with you wants career advancement. If they're content to work with non-union cos for the rest of their professional life, fine. Just don't expect too many people to be excited about that.

[Darkmoon]

The sirke has sperad to many actors as well, who are supporting the writers on this matter,

[Alondro]

You're assuming that nobody that works with you wants career advancement. If they're content to work with non-union cos for the rest of their professional life, fine. Just don't expect too many people to be excited about that.

I'm the writer and director.   I have complete control of myself!   

*No he doesn't!*

Who said that? 

[Fuyudenki]

wait, the major entertainment industries are reeling from a crippling strike, leaving the market open for any uppity Indie houses who want a piece of the action?

*strikes heroic pose* Alondro, get me character designs, a script, and keyframers and animators to work under me.  I'll lead your animation project!

[Alondro]

wait, the major entertainment industries are reeling from a crippling strike, leaving the market open for any uppity Indie houses who want a piece of the action?

*strikes heroic pose* Alondro, get me character designs, a script, and keyframers and animators to work under me.  I'll lead your animation project!

*chuckles*  Already got most of those things.

I R preZEEdent

I need more time these days to work on it.

[Fuyudenki]

oh wow, you've got Ursula Vernon!?

I don't recognize any of the other names below hers.

Mayhaps I should attempt to join your team.

Or mayhaps I should continue puttering along on my own.  I'll worry about it when I have time.

[DoctaMario]

the screenwriters' guild is on strike?

Good.  Screw 'em.  Maybe we'll get some almost-decent movies, now.

Now if we could just get the VFX guilds to strike, too.
Or just a small-scale nuclear drop on Hollywood itself.

Can you tell I don't like Hollywood?

I think they've been planning this strike for awhile which is maybe why they haven't released a whole lot of good movies as of late.

You watch tv and with this glut of reality shows, it seems like the writers have been on strike for the last 6 years! :^P All they need for a show like that is a producer with a couple half assed ideas and a couple of fame-hungry idiots who will sell their dignity out for a couple grand. Can you tell I don't like network tv? ;^P

[Brunhidden]

The sirke has sperad to many actors as well, who are supporting the writers on this matter,

i don't think its 'support' so much as it is 'oh crap, people are going to realize i am funny as a brick and cant form a complete sentence if my life depends on it'

[Alondro]

The sirke has sperad to many actors as well, who are supporting the writers on this matter,

i don't think its 'support' so much as it is 'oh crap, people are going to realize i am funny as a brick and cant form a complete sentence if my life depends on it'

Really, I'd support the writers much more than the actors.  Most actors barely have the IQ to hold a comprehensible conversation for more than a minute.  The few that do have any brains are the ones who know enough to keep their mouthes shut. 

But, I can't support the writers cuz they get paid way more than I do.   

[techmaster-glitch]

Hey, I just found a vid on YouTube that has a very clear explanation on what this is all about. For some reason, I didn't quite understand it all until now

Why They Fight

And I say, I agree with this.

[Reese Tora]

oh wow, you've got Ursula Vernon!?

I don't recognize any of the other names below hers.

Mayhaps I should attempt to join your team.

Or mayhaps I should continue puttering along on my own.  I'll worry about it when I have time.

I recognize Ursula Vernon and two more besides...
Tracy Reynolds and
Shawntae Howard

It looks like you've got an all star cast of artists behind you, Charles.