Writer's Guild Strike of 2023 - Fuck these people

[Jonah Hill poster]

Just read today that Hollywood might be going back to mask mandates and possible vaccine testing. So if you see so called activists protest in the streets about this strike with masks on, expect it to be both hilarious and odd at the same time.

 

[Random Internet Person]

@Ghostse in regards to your writing split, that already kind of happening. If you go to FilmFreeway and see the screenplay contests, if there’s multiple writers, they already do an even split of the prize money if a team gets it. Anything else is just what’s written down in a contract.

Good. It doesn't matter how many gormless fuckheads the system is forced to hire, it won't make their products suck any less. It will just mean more hands clutching at scraps on an ever-shrinking plate.
Let the entire fucking system ossify into uselessness and insolvency, and take as many of these scumfucks with it into oblivion as possible when it crumbles.

Even if that happens, it ain’t gonna happen anywhere as fast a rate as we’d like.

Just read today that Hollywood might be going back to mask mandates and possible vaccine testing. So if you see so called activists protest in the streets about this strike with masks on, expect it to be both hilarious and odd at the same time.

True believers doing what true believers do.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

If anyone feels like digging into a self-fellating pity party/wall of text, have I got just thing for you...

How Trust Died in Hollywood. And How to Get it Back

https://archive.ph/IdQjE

The odd part was, from this it sounds like Hollywood never had much trust, and if a way was offered about how to get said trust back I missed it completely in the context of the article. Also:

Unfortunately, the development process has been taffied out to the point where the executive who starts on the project is unlikely to still be involved by the time the project sees the light of day.

What the heck does "taffied out" even mean? Like making salt water taffy or something? But the end product there is something most people want. Unlike most of the turds Amazon, Paramount, NetFlix, et al are producing.

 

[Alter Ego]

I shared this in a different strike-related thread before, but it should be here in this general thread as well: The WGA's own summary of demands, also attached below.

Following up on primary-sourced statements to explain the state of the strike...

With talks apparently falling apart as both sides continue to hold out, the AMPTP released a summary of their offer originally announced a couple of weeks ago (6-page PDF attachment included below):

Publish Date:
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AMPTP Releases Details of its August 11th Comprehensive Proposal to WGA

Proposed Package Addresses WGA’s Most Significant Priorities
​

LOS ANGELES (August 22, 2023) —The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) today released extensive details of its August 11th proposal to the Writers Guild — a comprehensive package which addresses all of the issues the Guild has identified as its highest priorities. The offer recognizes the foundational role writers play in the industry and underscores the Companies’ commitment to ending the strike.

This new package substantially improves upon the AMPTP’s prior proposals. The comprehensive package also features first-of-their-kind offers for writers, including unprecedented terms in the areas of Generative Artificial Intelligence, data transparency and minimum staffing.

Carol Lombardini, President of the AMPTP, said, “Our priority is to end the strike so that valued members of the creative community can return to what they do best and to end the hardships that so many people and businesses that service the industry are experiencing. We have come to the table with an offer that meets the priority concerns the writers have expressed. We are deeply committed to ending the strike and are hopeful that the WGA will work toward the same resolution.”

To highlight a few of the key points of contention concerning mandatory writers' room staffing and AI (bold text as presented on the document):

Required Employment in the Writers’ Room
On High Budget SVOD and pay television series or serials, the Showrunner may select at least two writers to be employed (together with the Showrunner) for a period of at least twenty (20) consecutive weeks in the writers’ room, but not to exceed the duration of the writers’ room.

Artificial Intelligence Protections

The Companies propose landmark protections for writers surrounding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI). The Companies confirm that because GAI is not a person, it is not a ‘writer’ or ‘professional writer’ as defined in this MBA and, therefore, written material produced by GAI will not be considered literary material under this or any prior MBA. The proposal provides important safeguards to prevent writers from being disadvantaged if any part of the script is based on GAI-produced material, so that the writer’s compensation, credit and separated rights will not be affected by the use of GAI-produced material.

Should a Company furnish a writer with written material produced by GAI which has not been previously published or exploited, the Companies propose:

• GAI-produced material is not considered assigned material when determining the writer’s compensation. For example, if the Company gives a writer a GAI-produced screenplay and asks the writer to rewrite it, the writer will receive the fee for a screenplay with no assigned material and not a rewrite. Or, if the Company gives a writer a GAI-produced story as the basis for a teleplay, the writer will receive the story and teleplay rate.
• The GAI-produced written material will not be considered source material for purposes of determining the writer’s credit.
• The GAI-produced written material will not be the basis for disqualifying a writer from eligibility for separated rights.
• The Company will disclose to that writer that the material was written by GAI. The Companies also agree to the WGA’s proposal that a writer may not be required to use GAI in order to write literary material.

It is worth noting that, with this proposal, the Companies are now conferring greater protections on WGA members with regard to GAI-generated material than writers now possess if the studio were to give a writer a script that the studio acquired from a UK writer not working under the MBA and asked the writer to use it as the basis for writing a screenplay or teleplay.

In response, the WGA made their own statement, promising further details shortly:

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Negotiations Update - 8-22-23
After 102 days of being on strike and of AMPTP silence, the companies began to bargain with us on August 11th, presenting us for the first time with a counteroffer.
Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Dear Members,

After 102 days of being on strike and of AMPTP silence, the companies began to bargain with us on August 11th, presenting us for the first time with a counteroffer.

We responded to their counter at the beginning of last week and engaged in further discussions throughout the week.

On Monday of this week, we received an invitation to meet with Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav and Carol Lombardini. It was accompanied by a message that it was past time to end this strike and that the companies were finally ready to bargain for a deal.

We accepted that invitation and, in good faith, met tonight, in hopes that the companies were serious about getting the industry back to work.

Instead, on the 113th day of the strike – and while SAG-AFTRA is walking the picket lines by our side - we were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was.

We explained all the ways in which their counter’s limitations and loopholes and omissions failed to sufficiently protect writers from the existential threats that caused us to strike in the first place. We told them that a strike has a price, and that price is an answer to all – and not just some - of the problems they have created in the business.

But this wasn’t a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not twenty minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals.

This was the companies’ plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other.

Tomorrow we will send a more detailed description of the state of the negotiations. And we will see you all out on the picket lines and let the companies continue to see what labor power looks like.

In solidarity,
WGA Negotiating Committee

 

[Standardized Profile]

I don't think this is helping your point as much as you think it does.

I was just pointing out a lack of consistency in your principles, but that was unfair of me, there really is no requirement to have consistent principles.

 

[ScatmansWorld]

I was just pointing out a lack of consistency in your principles, but that was unfair of me, there really is no requirement to have consistent principles.

Get ready to have your mind blown, but I also don't think authors and artists should be making a lifetimes worth of passive income off of 1 story/world/setting etc. That includes any owner of any "Intellectual Property".

 

[Spud]

income off of 1 story/world/setting etc. That includes any owner of any "Intellectual Property".

Okay commie.

 

[Random Internet Person]

What the heck does "taffied out" even mean? Like making salt water taffy or something? But the end product there is something most people want. Unlike most of the turds Amazon, Paramount, NetFlix, et al are producing.

I assume it just means 'streched out a whole lot'. Basically, what this person is saying is "The beast of Hollywood and its politics is such a way that the folks in charge of a project will change so frequently, they're practically nameless and faceless entities in the grand scheme of things.

Honestly, the whole article is looking like it's worth a read and a blow by blow analysis.

mandatory writers' room staffing

Honestly, this is going to be a complete deal breaker (or at least a 90% chance of pushback) if I was negotiating for the studios. This is just screaming to be a target of abuse. Whatever intentions are claimed, what'll end up happening is just that mandatory staffing only going to be used for 1. nepotism and favoritism on the part of whoever's in charge of the writing room, or whoever hires for it. or 2. Whatever diversity push is going on at the moment, if 2020 is any indication.

Get ready to have your mind blown, but I also don't think authors and artists should be making a lifetimes worth of passive income off of 1 story/world/setting etc. That includes any owner of any "Intellectual Property".

TBH, the only reason we're at this "passive income" talk is because people grossly overestimated how much passive income there really is to make. And probably thinking they're God's gift to the craft. Also, as was said before, these writers also suffered a major self inflicted wound by way of alienating potential fans, so that passive income pool is probably going to be pretty tiny.

As for IP owners, what's so bad about those guys being able to make passive income? If anything, they could take a page from Japan and work it so the creators don't sign every right away and they get to be a part of how the IP is managed, like Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda. There has to be some kind of option for a creator to have a say over how their work is treated in their lifetime besides being someone like George Lucas who resorted to making his own studio in the 1970s.

 

[Inafune Fanfiction]

What do these niggers even produce?
Fairly sure most of them are some kind of spook plant.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

There has to be some kind of option for a creator to have a say over how their work is treated in their lifetime besides being someone like George Lucas who resorted to making his own studio in the 1970s.

The only reason George Lucas could do this is that at the time nobody realized the value of IP related toys, from the studios to the toy manufacturers (Kenner, in this case) to probably Lucas himself. He retained those rights, almost as a happy accident, and in consequence made bank.

And was able to fund both LucasFilm and the version of the Empire Strikes Back he wanted to make. No way would anyone get that nowadays, though I guess you could also argue that toy rights are no longer as valuable as they once were.

Honestly, the whole article is looking like it's worth a read and a blow by blow analysis.

I didn't see that at all, but you do you. Read to me like an extended temper tantrum.

 

[ScatmansWorld]

Okay commie.

Humans have been private property owners for a million+ years. Copyright law was created in 1710 because in 1662, the British government previously gave the Stationers' Company exclusive rights to prevent "the frequent Abuses in printing seditious treasonable and unlicensed Books and Pamphlets", as well as control over who could own and use a printing press. This was later changed in 1710 by the Statute of Anne which passed this duty to authors, but the point is the government shouldn't have been involved in the first place.

Copyright is government enforced artificial scarcity that inflates the value of artistic labor, wastes manpower on copyright enforcement and bureaucracy, and is used to control the power and knowledge of the population by proxy. If that sounds absurd, why don't you ask Microsoft for full detailed transparency of what data Windows collects and who they send it to, and see what happens.

 

[Mukhrani]

Humans have been private property owners for a million+ years. Copyright law was created in 1710 because in 1662, the British government previously gave the Stationers' Company exclusive rights to prevent "the frequent Abuses in printing seditious treasonable and unlicensed Books and Pamphlets", as well as control over who could own and use a printing press. This was later changed in 1710 by the Statute of Anne which passed this duty to authors, but the point is the government shouldn't have been involved in the first place.

Copyright is government enforced artificial scarcity that inflates the value of artistic labor, wastes manpower on copyright enforcement and bureaucracy, and is used to control the power and knowledge of the population by proxy. If that sounds absurd, why don't you ask Microsoft for full detailed transparency of what data Windows collects and who they send it to, and see what happens.

The reason it was created within the last few centuries is because the ability to rapidly copy and mass-disseminate work existed only for the last few centuries. Without copyright, you would have no good creative works because a market would not exist for them. Markets are always created and allowed to exist by governments - all markets are 'government-enforced.' Markets don't exist when the Scythians can come roaring out of steppe, rape your woman, and steal your grain - the first thing a government does is assemble power and repel external invaders. They don't exist where basic crimes like shoplifting and fraud aren't punished by law - the second thing that government does is establish a monopoly on force and enforce rules like those laid out in Hammurabi's Code. Then you have a market - it's a walled garden cultivated by the state, not the natural state of man.

Similarly, copyright creates a market for creative works in an environment where copying a work is trivial. This is part of why 'the first modern novel', Don Quixote, was published in Spain in 1605 - Miguel de Cervantes was able to secure publishing rights for 20 years. There's a reason it's 'the first modern novel' - creative writing before this was, like just about all higher art, done under the patronage of an entrenched nobility, not in a market context. Copyright means that if you produce a work, and the work is popular, you will profit. That's a fundamental market incentive - similar to 'if you produce 8 casks of good wine, you will profit'. If someone can steal your wine legally, there is no incentive to make good wine - it just makes you a more tempting target for theft, there is zero personal profit in it for you. Similarly, if someone can steal your work by just copying what took you years to write, then there is no market incentive to create good works.

What you would end up with are only hobbyist writers - if you want to see what that looks like, go to any free publishing website or fanfiction archive. Try trudging through that sludge to find anything worth reading. Markets are efficient at sorting for what's in demand and elevating it to the top. Maybe in our brave new world of hobbyist writers you'll end up with a great one now and again, but without copyright he won't be elevated to the top. He won't be able to produce value for people who are willing to pay for it because he won't make a living off of what he creates - so he can't put all of his labor towards it. He'll burn out and stop producing. It would be even more of a dark age than the literal dark ages - at least the aristocratic patrons of the arts picked a diamond out of the rough now and again, like the nobility who supported Dante in exile, or Dryden with Charles II. It would quite literally transform the literary world into Wattpad.

 

[dustbuster]

The reason it was created within the last few centuries is because the ability to rapidly copy and mass-disseminate work existed only for the last few centuries.

Today I learned the capacity to write things was only gained in the year 1662

 

[Mukhrani]

Today I learned the capacity to write things was only gained in the year 1662

Did the word 'copy' being italicized not highlight that what changed wasn't the ability to write, but to copy? We've been able to write for millennia, but copies had to be made by hand. There was no mass market for books, especially since paper and vellum were very expensive before we had paper mills. There were literate classes, not literate masses. The invention and proliferation of the printing press changed all of that, it expanded literacy and made copying books cheap, making it possible to create a mass market for books through copyright. That's why novels are a relatively recent literary form.

 

[dustbuster]

Did the word 'copy' being italicized not highlight that what changed wasn't the ability to write, but to copy?

Did my condescending tone not highlight that I do not care what excuses you make for a legal structure created by the british crown to quash free expression?

 

[ScatmansWorld]

Without copyright, you would have no good creative works because a market would not exist for them.

People will pay and support something if they enjoy it and are promised more of it. If someone would rather take a copy that a friend makes for free instead of supporting the creator, then either the creator needs to provide a product or service the copiers can't, or those people would never have supported the creator in the first place. Also, nothing is stopping DRM from still existing in a world with no copyright.

Markets don't exist when the Scythians can come roaring out of steppe, rape your woman, and steal your grain

I guarantee you that bartering and currency existed before the federal reserve did.

 

[dustbuster]

Remember all those classical composers who apparently don't exist according to the retard takes of Mukhrani?

 

[Pampered Degenerate]

Did my condescending tone not highlight that I do not care what excuses you make for a legal structure created by the british crown to quash free expression?

I've no dog in the fight, but you are one dumb fucking nigger. Just saying.

 

[Netizennameless]

Remember all those classical composers who apparently don't exist according to the retard takes of Mukhrani?

Many of the books in the bible were not written by the apostle they are attributed to. Over hundreds of years, random people would add their own shit onto the existing word of an apostle because that was the only way to have your ideas heard by a significant number of people. There weren't exactly copies laying around in abundance to compare to and there was no such thing as a copyright.

Also, many of those composers were known to steal the work of their proteges. But since there were no copyrights, it was the word of a famous composer vs. an intern basically.

 

[dustbuster]

Many of the books in the bible were not written by the apostle they are attributed to. Over hundreds of years, random people would add their own shit onto the existing word of an apostle because that was the only way to have your ideas heard by a significant number of people. There weren't exactly copies laying around in abundance to compare to and there was no such thing as a copyright.

Also, many of those composers were known to steal the work of their proteges. But since there were no copyrights, it was the word of a famous composer vs. an intern basically.

Thanks for making my point for me!
Before copyright stomped on the natural way in which art was remixed and sublimated via cultural exchange, we created artistic and cultural works with a shelf-life of centuries.
Now we have to wade through a swamp of absolute trash.
The fucking fidget spinner is "patented"