I support the WGA strike! I do! But....

[tzikeh]

I plan to use the coming Pencils Down Period to pimp older shows / fandoms to all of you.

So... would it be going against the strike if I bought / encouraged others to buy DVDs for a tv show if most of the writers of the show are dead now?

Comments

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Pimping Man from Uncle?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, Wild Wild West...

[montanaharper]

Encourage them to download it now and buy it after the strike is settled (when, presumably, the remaining writers and/or their estates will get more money from it)?

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

There's always Netflix, too, at least for some shows.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Netflix poses the same problem - studios make money by selling DVDs to Netflix.

More research is required. ;)

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

True, though they have a pretty significant back inventory.

I've seen several arguments against a DVD boycott right now, but I haven't seen the pro case laid out, and I'd be really interested in hearing the rationale if you have any links.

Argument against buying DVDs

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Here's the dealio - in 1985, the studio agreement with the WGA was that writers would get very, very little of the profit in VHS sales - 0.3% - in order to allow the market to grow. Once the market got off the ground, the cut would be renegotiated.

22 years later, VHS has changed over to DVD, and the viewers buy them in *droves*. The studios are recouping BILLIONS of dollars from DVD sales. The writers' cut? 0.3%.

So the WGA was asking for an increase, after 22 years, in their cut of the purchase market. But at the 11th hour (the Sunday before the strike was to begin), the studios got the WGA to *drop* their request for an increase in their cut of DVD residuals in exchange for a better, fairer deal on internet downloads and streaming (of which profit the writers currently get NOTHING), to avert the strike. So, the WGA took the DVD issue off the table. But, oh look! The studios didn't give a crap and said they never asked for such a thing. No deal on DVD increase, and no deal on a cut of internet profit. Strike begins.

No DVDs.

Re: Argument against buying DVDs

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm aware of the current deal, the background of the strike, as well as the fact that the studios were playing hardball and turned down a chance to take DVD residuals off the table.

I guess what I don't get is how not buying DVDs affects that. (This is a genuine question; I'm not being facetious.) It just seems to me that whatever deal the WGA ends up negotiating is not going to be retroactive, and I don't understand whether the potential starting point of better residual compensation would be for the time the DVD was sold or the actual piece of writing. If the deal the WGA wants is for DVD sales on all shows written by guild members from this time forward, it makes sense to boycott DVD purchasing until the strike is over in support. But if the most likely deal is for better residuals on shows written after the deal is struck, then it makes no difference. In the meantime, the studios are doing their slimy best to argue that downloads and DVDs aren't really a big deal, and a boycott might play into that narrative.

I'm hoping to find some better information on where the likely cutoff line would be.

Re: Argument against buying DVDs

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I guess what I don't get is how not buying DVDs affects that. (This is a genuine question; I'm not being facetious.)

No worries -- I didn't get the sense that you were being facetious. :D

Cut to the bone, the argument against buying DVDs is the exact same argument for not watching tv, and not streaming video, and not downloading shows: no money to the studios. We won't support the studios until the studios support the writers. That, not unlike the hokey-pokey, is what it's all about, no?

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

I plan on watching all the DVD sets I got pimped into buying and haven't yet seen. I am *amazed* at how huge that list is!!!