Wow that was quick

back to the safety of the familiar.

and the topic: the WGA strike.

For those of you who think that Unions are outdated and have no place in an intellectually based economy. Witness the current strike by the Writers Guild of America. the main issue is how writers are getting paid for their work. Some writers are paid one lump sum, and see nothing else, other writers see continued royalties on future productions or programs in syndication. Which raises the entire question of how writers get paid for a existing program or script being presented in a new medium.

the internet is a new medium for media. Until recently high speed broadband connections were rare, and expensive. The internet was used primarily for text and data transfer. Now that the average person can afford a connection fast enough to make webcasts and video download tolerable, they are becoming more common. But how do you pay the writer for them? Does each individual download count as a broadcast? Or each day, month, year?

So to those on strike: make the bastards pay for making us watch "Dancing with the Stars".

I only wish I was in an entertainment Union so I could go on a sympathy strike. Actually, I've got this week off... Screw it, I'm on strike too!!