Writers deserve their fair share

submitted by Benjamin Hickey

December 10, 2007 —

You have a paper due today, that you've known about all semester. You've done your best work on it, and you feel as though you deserve an A+, and you do. When you get to class, one of your classmates is standing in front of your teacher. Your classmate takes your paper and hands it to the teacher for you. The teacher immediately gives the classmate an A, and you get a C+. Your classmate got a better mark than you, just for passing on your hard work.

That would not be fair, would it? That's why I personally feel it isn't fair that the studio heads are forcing the WGA to strike by not sharing the profits of Internet viewing, and disagree with your opinion. I never reply to the opinion pieces in the Valley Vanguard, or in any other newspaper, but I feel strongly enough about this one, that I feel I must. When a studio, which does none of the work and doesn't create anything on the show, makes or will make nearly $1.2 billion in profits from online viewing, that's excellent for the studio. But why should the writers not get their cut?

As you say, you love the show Bones. You pay roughly $2 via iTunes to download an episode, as you stated in your article. Well you just handed $2 over to someone who has nothing to do with the show. He didn't create the show, he didn't star in the show, he is just there. Why shouldn't, say, $1.49 go to the studio, and 50 cents go to the person who created it? If it wasn't for the writers, Bones wouldn't exist, yet you say they don't deserve to earn their fair share?

And people recording the show and passing it on to the friend isn't the issue. The issue is the studios are purposely avoiding paying the writers. How? By saying that the Internet viewings are not actually airing. If they aired, they would have to be paid. They are calling the full-length episodes "promotional." They are basically saying the entire one hour episode of Bones you just watched (and I'm assuming you can download the whole season) is promotional for the series. Now, if you can download a 25-episode season for $50 (roughly), and you have the entire season, how can that be considered "promotional?" What that should be considered is screwing writers out of the paychecks they deserve for putting money in the studios' pockets. I feel the writers deserve to be rewarded for what they create.

So while yes, the average writer on The Office does make double the amount of the average crew-member makes there, they also double the work. All of the writers of The Office also star in the show, so while they may make double the amount, they are also writing it and acting it all out. They do double the work, and make double the money. That's how it should be.

Benjamin Hickey student