Negotiation Watch

Not dead, merely sleeping.

The WGA and AMPTP negotiations are on hiatus while the AMPTP turns its attention to the Teamsters and Basic Crafts...

And a reporter I've known forever calls me today and asks about the WGA-Producer wrestling match:

"What's up with management's proposals?"

Like I know. But I give a long answer that attempts to cover up the fact I haven't a clue what's up.

But of this I'm sure: the companies are either trying to pick a fight with the writers...or they're trying to pick a fight with the writers.

But this from WGA negotiator John Bowman's opening remarks at the first day of negotiations keeps ricocheting around my head:

As collective authors of a work, we are entitled to a portion of the revenue generated by that work. But you have publicly stated that you no longer want to pay us residuals on shows that are not in profit...

"[For management] to claim that intellectual property has lesser rights than physical property is a dangerous argument for anyone in our business to make. You are making the same argument to us that digital pirates make to you.

So...I guess this means that if management is okay with paying for work once and then reusing and repurposing it and getting more money without paying the creators again, then...

...they're okay with consumers buying the Snow White DVD and repurposing it for extra bucks on the internet.

I'm not missing something, am I? Fair's fair. That guy in Detroit paid his $16 for the little silver disk and the material on it, didn't he? So shouldn't the dude be free to do with it as he likes? The flick's seventy years old, after all. It's earned its cost back long since...