HP & DH Movie

[Carol]

Magpie:

> Magpie:
> But obviously it isn't a problem for lawmakers--I'm not sure why it 
> would be. They're working out the profits for sale of their work. 
> Why would there be laws about that rather than the writer (or 
> director or actor etc.) working out what they are going to be paid 
> for the stuff they create and how it's used in their contract? What 
> would a law really have to do with it?

Carol responds:

Because it relates to copyright law, the topic that started this
discussion in the first place. It *is* the government's or the court's
place to determine who owns the rights to a writer's work,
> 

> Magpie:
> It ["starving writer"] already is more than a cliche--most writers
make very little money:-) It's probably one profession where people
have gone without steady paychecks.

Carol responds:

I know. Add freelance editors to that list. :-)

Magpie: 
> Actually, I wonder if there aren't a lot of people who might get
some good writing done during the strike and just sell it later. 
Nothing's stopping them from that kind of writing that they might one
day make a lot of money from.
>
Carol:

That's not the impression I got. Didn't someone on this list say that
Steve Kloves can't write the DH script until the strike is settled? I
know I read that somewhere. At any rate, you can't write and stand in
a picket line at the same time. And wouldn't a union member who wrote
while the strike was on be considered a strike breaker (committing
"treachery," to use Kemper's word)?
>  
> > Carol, more concerned about the writers' right to eat and pay
their bills and put their kids through college than about their rights
to subsidies that would only marginally increase their income
> 
> Magpie:
> I'm not so sure it's as marginal as you're describing it here. It 
> just seems like a short-sighted way of looking at it--basically 
> saying that they shouldn't ever decide to fight for what they 
> consider fair pay for their work because it sounds bad for their 
> finances now. The way you describe it always sounds like they're 
> essentially starving themselves to death because they're too greedy 
> to let other people take most of the profits made from stuff they've 
> created. 

Carol responds:

Whether or not it's marginal, I doubt that it will make up for the
income they've lost in ten weeks (IIRC) of striking

Carol, who *is* concerned about the writers but is equally concerned
about the effects for all concerned of a prolonged strike