PLEASE DO NOT WATCH STREAMING VIDEO! SUPPORT THE WRITERS!

Fans4Writers.com

The writers, actors, production people do not receive any residuals from streaming video and it is only free if you watch the advertisers, who are paying the studios to play their ads in front or even during the streaming videos.

[ edited by RavenU on 2007-12-04 17:13 ]

RavenU | December 04, 20:08 CET

This is only slightly related but what's the consensus on buying DVDs during the strike ? I've seen boycotts mentioned elsewhere but isn't that depriving the writers of what residuals they do get ?

More by luck than judgement i've largely avoided it anyway (got 'Razor' on R1 DVD but i'd actually pre-ordered it before the strike started) but with Christmas coming up it's going to become an issue.

Saje | December 04, 20:18 CET

Over on fans4writers we are saying that if you buy DVD's send us a copy of the reciept or copy of the UPC label. Boycotting DVD sales will hurt the unions because they don't recieve their current residual rate. However, we want to start keeping track of all those DVD sales. That will frighten the studios more, if the customers actually starts keeping track and is able to report the sales numbers in public so the unions and others can see for themselves what the real unit numbers sold. So we do not encourage boycotting in that area, since they are recieving some payment (not much or enough).

But boycotting is up to the individual. However, we believe collecting data and making it public would be a more effective action against the studios when it comes to DVD sales.

[ edited by RavenU on 2007-12-04 17:27 ]

RavenU | December 04, 20:26 CET

RavenU,
What about netflixing?

barboo | December 04, 20:29 CET

barboo - That is an excellent question. I wish I had an easy answer but now that they are streaming, I honestly don't know where they currently fall.

However, I will post it in our writers Q&A thread, over at fans4writers.com, to see if one of the writers know the answer.

RavenU | December 04, 20:37 CET

Thanks, RavenU, I've been struggling with that question myself. Although the writers aren't receiving much for DVD sales, they are receiving something, so I felt that boycotting DVDs -- apart from being incredibly difficult for me personally at this time of year -- might also be counterproductive in terms of supporting the writers during the strike.

Reporting the sales sounds like a good alternative; I'll try to track down my receipts from the past few weeks and get copies sent off.

I'm curious to know about the Netflix question too. I don't really have a clue how revenue from rentals is calculated, whether the studios (and through them the writers) get paid once per physical copy of the product sold to rental outlets, or if there's some kind of royalties reporting beyond that.

MaryQue | December 04, 20:45 CET

The studios biggest secrets seems to be how they do their accounting. So I figure maybe we can do our part and shine a little light on it. After all, earlier this year Peter Jackson took the studio that made LOTR rings to court to find out the answer to the DVD question. You know what happened there, the court asked for the numbers and the studio refused to turn over the numbers and the judge hit them with a 6 figure (over $100,000) fine and they paid it, without question or comment. That should tell you something is not right, when they would rather pay a fine then tell how many copies of a movie they sold and show proof.

RavenU | December 04, 21:02 CET

Considering various actors/writers deals on profits etc. i'd imagine it's worth much more to the studio than $100,000 to avoid revealing the truth.

In fact, I bet you could multiply that fine by 100 and they'd still rather pay it than come clean about everything they owe (and also possibly get hit with retrospective claims for past films).

Saje | December 04, 21:06 CET

There is another cool Whedony streaming link I found like two days after the strike started, and I've refrained from posting it. Itchy, itchy...

jam2 | December 05, 00:50 CET

Oh now I'm curious. I wonder if there's a happy balance between supporting the writers and encouraging newcomers to discover Joss shows for the first time via the likes of DVDs and streaming videos.

Simon | December 05, 01:30 CET

Oh no... I didn't think, I'm sorry. Can someone take the link down... I posted before I thought, much like the way that I speak.

dulce_serenidad | December 05, 05:27 CET

For the record, this is just Hulu providing this. It's also on a bunch of different networks, plus Hulu itself. Which I have a private beta access for. But yeah, need... stay... away...

They need to get this strike over with. It's damn obvious the writers deserve residuals for ad-supported streams.

nathanieletc | December 05, 06:56 CET

Cruel temptation... Damn you, Hula.

Love's Bitch | December 05, 09:10 CET

That's a brilliant idea RavenU, thanks for posting it here, I haven't had time to check out F4W. I plan to buy some DVD's soon. I've never thought that boycotting something that writers make something on, no matter how little, was a good idea. I'm glad I've put off those purchases due to a lack of time & if this is really going to happen, I'll probably buy a few more than I'd intended, & definitely send in my receipts.
I've been avoiding streaming video since day one, didn't even watch the Razor teasers I hadn't seen yet. I've also noticed that a lot of new streaming stuff is being advertised on TV.

Shey | December 05, 16:42 CET