Whilst I agree with this week’s lecture theme that ‘illegal downloading is killing Hollywood’, I believe it’s also important to note all the legal downloading and internet use is hurting Hollywood and the film industry just as bad. Just over three years ago the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) went on strike for just over three months over the future of digital media in the film industry, effectively shutting down Hollywood for roughly the same time.
The focus of the dispute was payment for entertainment content distributed over the internet, mobile phones, iPod devices and other forms of new digital media. Although nobody knows exactly what the business model for the digital future will look like, the writers were anxious to establish the principle that they should receive an equitable share of any profits. As the video above shows writers were only being paid 4% of the dividends from reruns (and were asking for an modest extra 4% increase) but we being paid nothing for the online sales and on-site “promotional” releases.
The broader grievance, though, was that the writers have felt cheated out of revenues from video and DVDs since the early 1980s – an issue that prompted them to launch their last major strike in 1988, which sadly ended with little change. The bruised and battered entertainment industry then had to set about restarting hit shows that had been forced to close down Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and the US version of The Office for instance. Incredulously that year’s Academy Awards were also in jeopardy until just two week before they were to air.
Gumbel, A 2008, Hollywood writer’s strike deal brings back hit shows, viewed 5 September 2011. < http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hollywood-writers-strike-deal-brings-back-hit-shows-781039.html>.
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