So I'm sure you have heard by now that the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) is on strike...and rightfully so. I'm sure there is a lot more to the story but here are the basics, as i understand them:writers aren't compensated for the full episodes currently running online on NBC.com, ABC.com, and CBS.com. they are not compensated because it is "promotional" material. "promotional" material that has advertisements. They are also not compensated when their show is sold digitally, like on iTunes. The Office made $7 million on iTunes, the writers got nothing. Ironically you cannot buy the current season of The Office on iTunes, if i were to guess i would say this is because it became harder for NBC exec's to not give the writers their share of the money, so they did it their way. So say you go on NBC.com and watch a full episode of the Office with five commercials in it and the writers don't see a dime of this because it's promotional, but the dudes running NBC get money because they know, as does most of America, lots of people watch stuff on the internet. Another example is that the writers of The Office won an Emmy for the webisodes on NBC.com (which also contain advertisements) and NBC did not pay the writers for this, in fact they did not even pay the $28 for the writers to have the actual Emmy statue. so basically the writers are striking because they recognize new media as a new avenue for their work to be seen, and also a new way for them to be exploited.
i am pretty angry about this not only because i am a huge Office fan, but mostly because i am an artist and can understand the frustration about new media. this is a fight that needs to be won, or artists are going to continue to get screwed over.
For more information to make up your own mind:
United Hollywood
MIT
Pam's Blog
"The Office is Closed"
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