Comments by "Shad DOUIDA" (@shaddouida3447) on "How the Hollywood strikes are affecting business outside the entertainment industry" video.
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Pay was highlighted in the AMPTP’s counteroffer. For example, if writers are given an AI-created screenplay and asked to touch it up, they will “receive the fee for a screenplay with no assigned material and not a rewrite.” The studios’ offer to compensate writers as if they’re penning original works when they’re touching up scripts created by AI could result in a scenario where writers are, in effect, giving these AI-created scripts eligibility for copyright protection.
“They want to cut writers out of intellectual property rights as much as they can,” Lopez says. “They see AI as a shortcut to do that, but they don’t realize they need us.”
The AMPTP’s offer revealed on Tuesday detailed that AI-produced material “will not be considered source material for purposes of determining the writer’s credit” and “will not be the basis for disqualifying a writer from eligibility for separated rights.”
Amid this backdrop, studios have been fighting legal battles over the rights to iconic franchises birthed in the 1980s, including Top Gun, Predator, Terminator and Friday the 13th. Writers have been exploiting a provision in copyright law that allows them to recapture previously transferred copyrights after a certain period of time.
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“Fundamentally, the offers mistook who’s doing who a favor,” John Lopez, a member of the WGA’s working group on AI, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “They need us.”
By keeping AI on the table, the studios may be looking to capitalize on the intellectual property rights around works created by the tools. “If a human touches material created by generative AI, then the typical copyright protections will kick in,” a source close to the AMPTP says.
The studios detailed their position to the WGA on the heels of a meeting between guild leadership and Hollywood CEOs that included Disney chief Bob Iger, Netflix leader Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery mogul David Zaslav. It proposed to bar in the contract content generated by AI from being considered “literary material” — defined as stories, adaptations and screenplays, among other types of works, for use in the production of TV and film projects. “A writer will not be disadvantaged if any part of the script is based on GAI-produced material, so that the writer’s compensation, credit and separated rights will not be affected,” the offer stated.
Hours after the offer was revealed by the studios, the WGA told members that it “failed to sufficiently protect writers” and accused members of the AMPTP of leading an effort “not to bargain, but to jam us.” It stressed “limitations and loopholes and omissions” in the proposal, but did not elaborate.
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The 1960 WGA & SAG Strike Ended In Better Residuals & Rights For Writers & Actors
The 1960 WGA and SAG strike ended with better residual agreements and rights for both writers and actors. In many ways, the actors reinforced the writers' demands for guaranteed residuals that helped bring their strike to a more advantageous outcome. Of course, the SAG shared a common interest with the WGA at the time, similar to the current 2023 dual strike. The previous SAG concluded on April 18, 1960 with the ATFP agreeing to pay a one-time sum of $2.25 million, or roughly $23 million today considering inflation, to cover the implementation of the guild's healthcare and pension plans. The WGA protest continued for weeks after the conclusion of the SAG strike.
The WGA strike finally reached a resolution on June 12, 1960 that secured the first residual deal for writers of theatrical releases in the history of Hollywood. The writers were also able to secure their own funding from the ATFP for healthcare and pension plans as well (via WGA). Ideally, the 2023 dual SAG and WGA would repeat the history of the 1960 dual strike, with the actors' guild setting a new precedent that will ultimately benefit the writers' original interests. Since Hollywood will be forced to respond swiftly and drastically in order to save its 2024 productions and beyond, agreements must be secured in both the writers' and actors' 2023 strikes that ensure artificial technology will not take over their craft in an industry that has always focused on the pecuniary bottom line.
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