Writers Strike Officially Over 499
CNN is reporting that the 100-day Hollywood writers walkout is now officially over. The new contract managed to snag two of the three major points the Writers Guild was looking for. The writers will now have "jurisdiction" for content created especially for new media (Internet, cell phones, etc) and will get paid for the reuse of content on new media when the studios get paid. "Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press, 'At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry. [...] It's unclear how soon new episodes of scripted programs will start appearing, because production won't begin until scripts are completed, the AP reported. It will take at least four weeks for producers to get the first post-strike episodes of comedies back on the air; dramas will take six to eight weeks, the AP said.'"
No summer reruns? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:YAY! (Score:3, Interesting)
Did they ditch the DVD demand? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm curious as to why nobody's mentioning the writers' other big demand, for an increased royalty on DVD sales. Did they drop that demand as part of a compromise?
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:3, Interesting)
To quote my good friend, "I've been bored lately, so I started law school, built my own first computer and learned how to use Ubuntu. The writer's strike is the best thing that's ever happened to me!"
Really, didn't this strike seem kind of like a bad move. This is how I see it.
Writers want revenue from "new media" sources (the internet, namely). The writers strike, forcing "old media" sources to stagnate - but "new media" sources continue to flourish. Individuals find more entertainment online than with the old media sources and thus move over in greater numbers.
In other words, the writer's strike has only hastened the demise of the old media, and shown that new media can be entertaining without either the television companies or writers.
I'm sure this won't kill television by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think that a lot of viewers' eyes have been opened to other outlets of entertainment, and outlets that are in fact less passive, and probably more rewarding as there is the "hey, I found this. It didn't find me" feeling.
I do think that active (vs. passive) entertainment does actually appeal to people. Perhaps it's just that active entertainment in the recent past (television era) has required some physicality (board games, sports) - not so with the internet. I can sit on my couch physically inactive, but actually have an active mental experience.
Maybe the writer's strike has made us all a little bit smarter?
Re:First post (Score:3, Interesting)
Yay Numb3rs. It's cool to see that other geeks like it -- I'm a college freshman in CS, and I'm so tired of hearing that my classmates either haven't heard of it or think it's crap and not worth watching. Personally, I'm willing to suspend enough disbelief to enjoy the show despite the far-fetched uses of math.
Writers are too greedy. FAIL! (Score:3, Interesting)
Why should the writers get any of the profits? They get paid for a job...done. They're not taking the risk on a show that will flop like the networks do. It's just like owning a business. You take a high risk because you're responsible for your company succeeding, but you could also make more as the owner. The employees get paid for doing there work...and can go home to their families.
The writers and the networks get a big fat FAIL!
http://wwwfail.com/?url=slashdot.org%2Farticle.pl%3Fsid%3D08%2F02%2F13%2F1724211 [wwwfail.com]Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:3, Interesting)
Rather, it's an admission of the changing environment the arts operate in. It's indicative of a realization of executives that the current technological climate is radically different than it was even a decade ago, and the business model needs to change accordingly. This is a triumph for internet transactions and dissemination of artistic works.
I don't care that you don't care (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:YAY! (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, I don't think a writer's strike could hurt Heroes... I'm kind of surprised to learn it was written at all.
For true satisfaction, reality is better. (Score:4, Interesting)
However, I got tired of seeing fiction that tried to make me believe things that could not be true due to the laws of physics, or due to other aspects of reality. So, now I only watch or read non-fiction. Defending myself from the deceptions and errors of fiction takes brain processing time, and I'd rather use my brainpower to work on something else besides the ideas of a writer who had little interest in reality when he was in school.
It bothers me that comedians can't operate without writers, that they present their jokes as their own, but the jokes are actually written by someone else.
Far worse, however, is the media writing that George W. Bush said something when he was obviously only reading something someone else wrote. In class you get disciplined if you present someone else's work as your own. If you are president of the United States, that is considered acceptable.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, in general, a high skill job, is one that requires skills that most people do not have, and therefore is rare and in demand more, and commands a higher rate of pay. (I don't like to use the word salary, being a direct employee to me is like being a slave, but, that's another soapbox).
"In fact, the union benefits are determined by a free-market"
I'd argue that they are NOT determined by a free market. Without unions, someone that was willing to take a bit less could get the job. Union areas...well, I've heard that in some places and some jobs...you can NOT even be considered for a job, unless you are a union member. That is hardly 'free market'.
"Why should "full benefits" (assuming that, since you remove pensions, all that is left is health/dental benefits) be dependendent on having a job at all? Seems like a human right."
I agree...health benefits should not be a part of having a job. It wasn't always that way...I don't remember the particulars, but, I think it was some time after WW1 or 2...where employers for some reason, in lieu of raises or increased wages, offered insurance to workers...and it basically started from there. Frankly, as an indie contractor....I'd much prefer to be paid my bill rate, which I require to be high enough to allow me to make my own benefits. I like to be able to set up my own IRA's and sock money away pre-tax. I like that I can set up a high deductible insurance (for catastrophic cases)...and then set up a HSA (Health Savings Account) that builds year after year, and can also be invested into the market to make money...all pre-tax, and tax free in most cases. In the long run, I can come out far ahead of most people that 'pay' insurance premiums and co-pays all their working life.
If they'd just let us more easily work this way....work in a contract manner, we'd be more protected (contractual obligations spelled out), we'd get paid for what we work (no more 80 hour weeks on a salary based on 40 hour weeks), and we could be in more charge of our own destiny.
I agree...but, slightly differently...I think we could all be ENABLED as a right, to provide for our own health care. If we didn't have the govt. and insurance corps and HMO's all so ingrained in the medical industry as we do now...and doctors could compete with each other as they did in the older times (30 years ago or so)...we would have affordable health care, and people could save and pay for it.
the dirty truth (Score:5, Interesting)
The studios felt they were saddled with dead weight in the form of long-term development deals that were going no where. Sure you get a good show or two out of them, but there were too many for the product that was being produced. There were some that were three years into their deals and had no product yet. All of those deals have "act of god" or "force majeur" clauses in them and most were 90-days (from what i was told by the Universal Studios folks).
After 90-days those deals were killed, the people had all been laid off earlier and now, amazingly, 10-days later the strike is settled. The WGA was a puppet used to smack down the small production companies.
The tiny concessions given to the writers have been estimated to amount to about $3,000 per year for a constantly working writer of average pay. And even in those concessions there are loopholes for the studios - like they get to wait a month after releasing a show for the web before they have to pay anything to the writer. Look for lots of "pay for it on iTunes or get it free after a month" deals from now on. So basically the writers sold out tens of thousands of actual hard-working people (grips, food workers, etc.) for hollow concession to feed their damaged egos.
Re:First post (Score:3, Interesting)
That little speech he does repeatedly "everything can be represented with numbers, if you plot the numbers, patterns emerge, etc...". And when he starts again "evidence: The rise and fall of the Nile, sunspots cycles, etc..." it gives me goosebumps.
The thing is... if people can't relate to that I feel sorry for them. But that movie made mathematical beauty almost understandable to a general public. The movie paints a picture of mathematics that is exciting, passionate, beautiful and dangerous. It's a movie every mathematician should whatch when he feels all those little uniqueness and existence theorems are getting a bit dull... because the AREN'T. I swear to god I sometimes feel like that guy. And it makes me feel great. Anti-social, paranoid, borderline sociophobic, manic-depressive... maybe, but you are cracking open a mystery of the universe! It made mathematics look almost - dare I say it? - cool!
THAT is the true appeal of the film, however inaccurate the actual mathematical details might be. And while this isn't a contradiction of your post or even a logical answer to it, I think this belongs in the discussion.
Re:First post (Score:3, Interesting)
Way to screw up a joke eh.