STRIKE!
Television and movie screen writers said Thursday they would go on strike for the first time in nearly 20 years in a dispute over royalties.
The major sticking point is DVD royalties and potential royalties for new media.
Studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, are dead set against increasing DVD royalties.
Writers and actors have been fighting for years to reverse what they see as a huge mistake made at the dawn of home video, when no one was sure if selling movies on VHS cassettes would ever make money.
The unions agreed to ignore the first 80 percent of revenue from the tapes and later DVDs, assuming most of the money represented the cost of manufacturing and distribution.
Writers settled for just 1.2 percent of the remaining 20 percent, a figure that amounts to about 3 cents on a DVD that retails for $20.
Writers are now asking for their share to be calculated on 40 percent of revenue and argue the same formula should be used for digital distribution because studios have almost no costs associated with that technology.
Consumers are expected to spend $16.4 billion on DVDs this year, according to Adams Media Research.
By contrast, studios could generate about $158 million from selling movies online and about $194 million from selling TV shows over the Web.
I find it very difficult to see the studios' side in this thing, other than, they want to keep as much money for themselves as possible.
Four writers told The Associated Press that Writers Guild of America President Patric Verrone made the announcement in a closed-door session, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.
"There was a unified feeling in the room. I don't think anyone wants the strike, but people are behind the negotiation committee," said Dave Garrett, screen writer for the movie "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo."
Really? Writers couldn't find a better representative to talk to the press than the guy who wrote the sequel to Deuce Bigalow?
Ah, well. Solidarity.
And unemployment...
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