| re: You are fundamentally incorrect. | |
| Posted by: sondheimobsessed7090 12:14 am EDT 05/31/23 | |
| In reply to: re: You are fundamentally incorrect. - ryhog 11:33 pm EDT 05/29/23 | |
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| This is still tangential to the thread, but I wanted to clarify this for you since you clearly are not fully educated on the topic of authors and how it works, and as I actively want these laws to change I wouldn't want misinformation to be spreading on this. Owners of restaurants and Authors are not at all in the same boat, Authors don't set wages of anyone, they don't employ anyone, but ultimately set by the producers, they actually don't always have full control, that has to be negotiated, they actually will get a royalty that's mutually agreed upon, that royalty is significantly smaller than the amount that an owner of a business would take home.And often in exchange for producing the work, a producer will demand to get a percentage of an Author's royalties for future productions for a certain number of years, on Broadway, this can be up to 50%. (Non-profits less, but can be up to 10%, with the occasional one taking more than that) A freelancer is a different thing than a business owner. The idea that "there's no version of economics in which this can be validated." is absolutely untrue - actually other countries (I can't speak for every country, but the countries I deal with the most UK and Canada) both have a Writers Guild that can both collectively bargain and protect copyright. The US is actually the odd man out here, and although there is a bargained agreement from decades ago for Broadway only (not off-broadway or regional), the Dramatists Guild is not able to renegotiate that very outdated deal and update terms for writers based on new technology and realities, because of current antitrust legislation in the US. FYI I can promise you that most of my writing clients would prefer the WGA deal, but the point is that it shouldn't be an either/or. You're right that it's negative for TV/Film writers to and frankly part of what's allowing studios to become more and more conglomerates because they own all this IP rather than the authors. But the people writing for TV/Film bargained by the WGA are much more likely to be able to live off of what they make in the room. Unless you happen to write a hit musical that plays on Broadway and is available for licensing, it's almost impossible to make a living in theater - and the folks who can are very very rare - you wouldn't say that everyone would prefer it if you understood how rare it is. Of say, 100 clients, I'd say one of them makes a living off of their theater income. On the other hand, every single one of my clients who is working in TV/Film is supporting themselves with that income. Everyone else in theater has to have a full-time other job, a wealthy spouse or other familial support. To try to put in perspective for you - a writer who recently had a show at a major theater off-broadway only made $10,000. This is for something they worked on for years, specifically with this theater, on top of the three weeks of rehearsal, two weeks of previews, and rewrites outside of rehearsal. and they ended up having to do a lot of marketing and community outreach work themselves for free. The lowest level staff writer in a TV room would make $10,000 in about two weeks. As I said, the Dramatists Guild, along with other writing organizations, have been advocating for years to change these antitrust laws. Here's a letter from them recently detailing why these laws should change. https://authorsguild.org/app/uploads/2023/04/Creators-Together-Collective-Action-Rights-Letter-4.27.23.pdf |
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