Whenever a strike is talked about in the "media" the details in this video are glossed over. Seems like a reasonable expectation to get royalties on internet video distribution.
Sure people say writers should be happy with what they get, but because there has been a precedent for writers getting residuals, it stands to reason those residuals will keep up with the times.
That being said, there are many financial and other arrangements which have conveniently not kept up with the times. For example the CAFE standards have been increased very slowly. Also, the minimum household income to qualify for certain federal student loans has not been increased with inflation, so if household income of $25,000 a year bought a college education in 1965 the government thinks it should be the case today. Very convenient indeed!
The comedian in me says "maybe the writers' strike will put to bed such poorly written shows as Bionic Woman" but the future writer in me says "4 cents? You're kidding right? What's the big deal?"
I suspect the big deal is that due to the worldwide reach of the Internet, there may in fact be more viewers online than there are on broadcast tv. A show such as Bionic Woman, which gets poor ratings in America due to its poor plots and all dialogue spoken by Miguel Ferrer, may in fact be extremely popular with internet viewers in France. Let's face it, there are only so many David Hasselhoff re-runs to keep our French comrades happy. Or is that Germany who loves the Hoff?
Anyway, I say to the Hollywood bean coutners, Either give the writers their extra 4 cents, or make the Running Man into a 7 night a week series. Aside from reincarnating Richard Dawson and giving Jesse Ventura another shot at stardom, people killing each other for money on tv is possibly the only alternative to paying writers to create compelling entertainment.
