looks like the writers’ guild strike is happening. i think my most basic emotion is that i’m strangely sort of happy about it — not about the economic impact on the writers, which is not good at all, but i’m happy that i don’t *have* to watch colbert & daily show 4 times a week. isn’t that strange? i could always have decided not to watch it, but this seems somehow easier. takes the bat out of my hands, so to speak.
anyway, i don’t find the prospect of less television very disturbing (especially since season 5 of The Wire is already in the can and awaiting us in January).
i *do* think, though, that this strike — and people expect it to be a long one — will have a highly damaging effect on the quality of television shows. the last really major writers strike in 1988 left us with shows like America’s Most Wanted and Cops, both of which heralded in a really crappy (and giant) genre of television. what will we get now?
but it’s one of those things, i think. for the studios, this feels, to me, like their waterloo, their napster. we’re in a period of incredible creativity in the world, incredible connectedness. putting down the hammer on the creatives — in other words, not letting them share fairly in the proceeds from the distribution of their work — isn’t likely to help the television and motion picture industry, in my own, admittedly uninformed opinion.
but we’ll see. maybe folks will pick up books. i do know that i’m going to cut any television shows that i’m watching that are marginal (i’m looking at you, Pushing Daisies and Weeds, and maybe you, too, DirtySexyMoney), and endeavor not to add any reality junk that shows up when scripted shows run out in january.
I’m curious about this quote in particular:
“in other words, not letting them share fairly in the proceeds from the distribution of their work”
I’m having a hard time rationalizing the difference in compensation for writers of media content and software engineers. Do you think writers would be more fairly paid with salary & stock options, or do you think software engineers should be entitled to residuals on the ongoing sales/profits from the code they write?
Both are situations where creative experts create copyrighted material that is signed over to the corporation based on employment.
I’m having trouble rationalizing the two of them.
Adam
yeah, i don’t really know. i think that participation in upside is basically the important key. as i get older, i find myself siding more and more often with “labor” in arguments. in this particular case, as a pure consumer, i enjoy what the writers do more than any other actor in the value chain, so i’d like to see them compensated.
I’m curious about this quote in particular:
“in other words, not letting them share fairly in the proceeds from the distribution of their work”
I’m having a hard time rationalizing the difference in compensation for writers of media content and software engineers. Do you think writers would be more fairly paid with salary & stock options, or do you think software engineers should be entitled to residuals on the ongoing sales/profits from the code they write?
Both are situations where creative experts create copyrighted material that is signed over to the corporation based on employment.
I’m having trouble rationalizing the two of them.
Adam
yeah, i don’t really know. i think that participation in upside is basically the important key. as i get older, i find myself siding more and more often with “labor” in arguments. in this particular case, as a pure consumer, i enjoy what the writers do more than any other actor in the value chain, so i’d like to see them compensated.