We're sticking with the Union and want a fair contract now!

The times they are a changing...

I have been talking to people on sets for the last couple of years about the changes in technology. I found it hard to believe that so many people who work in the entertainment industry where so uniformed about the state of technology. All The Majors have deals now with Apple, Microsoft and Netflix for direct delivery of content via the internet. These deals have been many months in the making - defiantly before the strike. I think they were hoping to push off any discussion of this for three years - and hoped that the unions would cave. I think that they did not plan on an early strike - but once it came down - They wanted to use it to clean house and end deals and make it look like the writers were to blame for what was happening, possibly scaring the other unions into capitulating. But at the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld - the announcements were clear: There is huge money to be made over the internet - and the Studios were very much informed about it and were hoping to get away with cutting out the people who actually did the work of creating what the studios sell. Hopefully, all this is going to make the writers, directors and actors see - that there are many ways to cut out the middle men studios. Even though the industry is not going to completely transform overnight - It is coming and the ownership of the copyright and content is going to start to shift. It is lost on TV series and other Work for Hire deals. But I think you will see the beginning of the shift with Original material. The creators will start to retain control and license instead of give up copyright. It won't go over without a fight, but the change has begun and it will take place.