TVSquad

You're assuming that it was a writer who actually did the heckling, and not an aggrieved TV fan.

Karen,
I'm curious why you're so anti-union? From your your other comments you seem to be a housewife who enjoys posting on tvsquad and parentdish... so what made you turn so much against workers fighting for better pay?

Probably education and intelligence, erik.

If these functional retards would stop feigning outrage at a phantom issue, they would realize what the rest of the country realizes- not only do they get paid to sip starbucks all day, but they get to negotiate their own contracts every year. Nobody forces them to sign the dotted line, and now not only are they not showing up for work but they're going back on their word to deliver a product at a certain price.

But I'm pretty sure this is the most egregious hate crime ever inflicted upon anyone ever, imagine asking someone to show up to work to support themselves and their families... the horror! [insert sarcasm here]

There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hand of the worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a Union

I'm with you Dave. They'd rather eat fat and let the rest of the country starve than stick it out with the rest of the workers.

Unions and their bosses make me sick to my stomach. All this liberal "for the workers" rhetoric just goes to show how badly these idiots really should have gone to college.

If Letterman wasn't making the millions and millions he is, and thus couldn't afford to pay his staff throughout the holidays (as he is doing now), I have no doubt Letterman would come back to work rather than have 100 people lose their jobs right before Christmas.

Yeah, writers don't come up with the questions as far as I know. Researchers come up with discussion topics, and the host uses those topics to ask the questions.

internet media is in testing stages? Surely you must be joking. How exactly are they jumping the gun with wanting something in place for the future instead of waiting for the execs to decide what they think the writers should get for internet media?

You do realize that even the "handful" of good shows would be worth shit if it weren't for the writers. Show some respect!

It's true. They want profit where the networks haven't figured out where to turn one yet. If and when they figure out how to make money, the writers can always refuse to sign on to a project without those earnings in place.

Joey Geraci, I'll show the writers respect when they entertain me for cheaper. They work for ME, the average American viewer and I haven't seen anything worthy of any respect for years, so show some intelligence and shut the hell up.

The problem is, if they waited a year or two, they'd have a locked in contract. The reason they chose now to strike wasn't some arbitrary date. They waited until their contract was up, and then decided to strike.

The last time, when they were screwed over BEFORE home video became big, is the exact reason WHY they need to deal with internet now. They gave in on home video, and then were stuck with the rotten deal they had agreed to throughout the whole time home video and then DVD blew up huge because of the contract signed.

That's why they want a percentage now, or a sliding scale based on total online views -- this way, right now, it won't bring them a lot of money, but once internet becomes the #1 place to watch television (which it will, inevitably), the studios will have to actually pay up. Otherwise, the writers will be locked in to not collecting ANY residuals, and the studios will just rake in the cash.

Just to add to what Paul said there are a couple of important points to keep in mind. First, home video royalties were set in 1988 during the era of VHS tapes when the cost of production was higher than it currently is with DVDs. Production costs made the deal that the three Guilds (WGA, DGA, and SAG) struck seem relatively equitable. AMPTP has been highly resistant to reopening the home video residuals issue in every contract since then, despite the changes in the means of production (pressing DVDs as opposed to dubbing tapes of a master).

Secondly, but related to the first issue, the Guilds can't really wait a year or two to deal with this. It's not just because their contracts are almost inevitably three year labour pacts, it's because it is an issue coming to a head now. If they delay in making a deal on this issue, at the time of the next negotiations, the studios could very well come back at them and say that they had been content with their lot in the last negotiations and the status quo should be maintained.