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Two big issues concerning writer's/author's rights to the material they create have been in the news lately: Firstly, Steve Vander Ark of the Harry Potter Lexicon wants to make a print version of his website and J. K. Rowling, understandably, sent her lawyers out after him and how he's pissed, and secondly, the Writer's Guild of America is on strike. (What the WGA is is basically the labor union for all of the writers in Hollywood- the people who write for talk shows, comedies, dramas, movies, and anything else where an actor, comedian, or host performs/speaks the words that someone else has written.) This gets me thinking about the rights of an individual (or team of individuals) who have created original works.
When you're Jo Rowling, and your story and all associated with it has been the center of a very big hurricane of adoration, do you still own that story? Sure, there are lots of fans who love it and may even know it better than you do yourself. But it's still yours. You put in the hours upon hours of hard, exhausting, tedious work to create this story.
And where would our television shows and movies be without the people who write for them? The writers write the dialogue and the stage directions and the jokes, and quite a lot more. Without them, the actors would just stand around hopelessly. Sure, there are actors who can improvise, but really, what good would Lost, or Heroes, or Pirates of the Caribbean be if we let Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley make up their own lines?
So do the writers of these shows and movies deserve more for what they do? Do they deserve 8 cents per DVD sale instead of the 4 cents they're currently receiving? (To put it in perspective, the people who make the plastic the dvds come in get 50 cents of the sale price.)
It all reminds me of being in school and getting so angry when someone who plagiarized got a better grade than I did. Doing research, putting it together coherently, forming original conclusions and making it all sound pretty is hard work. It's hard work no matter how good you are. So it bothered me on two levels: as a writer I'd be pissed as hell if my original research and conclusions were being ripped off, or if my original fiction was being shamelessly copied. And as a fellow student who did all of her own work it wasn't fair that someone who had more time to make everything look pretty got all the credit and I got none.
It's the same way with the writers vs the guys who make and sell the dvds: Sure, the package looks pretty, but who made what's inside it? The WRITERS.
And Steve Vander Ark worked hard on the Harry Potter Lexicon. Ms. Rowling herself admitted that she used the site sometimes when she was writing. Yes, it's difficult to gather that large volume of information and produce a pleasing and efficient, and coherent, whole. It's hard to make an encyclopedia with the volume of information given to the fans by Ms. Rowling in the books, on her website, and in interviews. But does that give him the right to make money off of it? No, it doesn't. It's a good website, and a great resource for fans of the series who, like me, have an obsessive attitude about Harry Potter minutia. It's a great place to go if you want to find out what chapter something happened in or someone's favorite color. And the fact that it's a website means that you can get linked instantly from one place to another for even more information. But that STILL doesn't give him the right to make money off of something created and owned by SOMEONE ELSE.
We just don't give the people who create the things we love enough credit. We don't give researchers enough credit, either. We take from them constantly. Basic television is free. You don't have to pay anyone to watch the local news channels. And what's on the local news channels happens to be some of the best televison out there. So we take for granted what we're given for free and demand more, more, more. We complain when an episode isn't quite as good as it could have been. We feel let down. We forget that the people creating it all are only human, just like us.
Writing is hard, no matter what you're writing. Fiction, non-fiction, tv shows, the stuff that Jay Leno says... it's hard to be funny, or dramatic, or whatever on demand. It can take weeks to get just a couple of really good scenes written. It can take hours to create one joke. And when someone comes in and watches it for free, and then complains about it, I can imagine that it feels like a slap across the face. And the writers don't get paid for internet downloads, even though selling episodes or whole seasons of a television show is a very, very fast growing market. People are making a lot of money off of iTunes sales. The people who aren't making money are the people who created it all in the first place, the writers. Before there's a snappy line delivery, before there's a great scene full of great lighting and good acting and direction, before the audience falls down laughing, someone had to write it all down, and write it all down well.
It doesn't even matter if J. K. Rowling is a billionaire or if the writers in Hollywood are just whining over nothing. They worked damn hard, and for other people to profit off of their hard work is just inexcusable. Normally I hate it when someone says "it's the principle of the thing!", but that's really what it boils down to. The person who did the work is the person who should get the credit. Rearranging the way that work is presented (as in Steve Vander Ark's case) or being the people who broadcast and package the work (as in the producer's case- the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, that is, the studios, production companies, networks, and individuals that the WGA is striking against) doesn't change the fact that a person, or a group of people, worked hard first.
It's hard to remember this, but good movies, television shows, plays, music, and books don't just spring into being. They have to be made, and made well, by real people. It's those real people who deserve at least some credit for what they do.
Oh, and if the writer's strike goes on for much longer, the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) and the DGA (Director's Guild of America) will be striking with them. And in July the SAG and the DGA may strike, and if they do, the WGA will strike along with them. We're in for a lot of foreign imports, reality television, and, sigh, reruns. Even if the WGA's strike doesn't last long, it'll still impact pretty much everything we watch, on television or the big screen. According to Wikipedia, "CBS News and CBS's locally owned and operated station news operations are currently subject to a different strike action by WGA which may be authorized November 15, as CBS News writers under WGA have been without a contract with the network since April 2005." So... yeah, television is just screwed right now. Even animation may be affected. Even shows that have scripts stockpiled will suffer because the writers won't be available for rewrites. So any new television we do get is likely to be crap.
One last, unrelated, and important thing: Bianca, I'm here for you if you need me for any reason, even if you just want to rant to thin air or something. And lots of hugs, too. <3
-12:17 AM
When you're Jo Rowling, and your story and all associated with it has been the center of a very big hurricane of adoration, do you still own that story? Sure, there are lots of fans who love it and may even know it better than you do yourself. But it's still yours. You put in the hours upon hours of hard, exhausting, tedious work to create this story.
And where would our television shows and movies be without the people who write for them? The writers write the dialogue and the stage directions and the jokes, and quite a lot more. Without them, the actors would just stand around hopelessly. Sure, there are actors who can improvise, but really, what good would Lost, or Heroes, or Pirates of the Caribbean be if we let Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley make up their own lines?
So do the writers of these shows and movies deserve more for what they do? Do they deserve 8 cents per DVD sale instead of the 4 cents they're currently receiving? (To put it in perspective, the people who make the plastic the dvds come in get 50 cents of the sale price.)
It all reminds me of being in school and getting so angry when someone who plagiarized got a better grade than I did. Doing research, putting it together coherently, forming original conclusions and making it all sound pretty is hard work. It's hard work no matter how good you are. So it bothered me on two levels: as a writer I'd be pissed as hell if my original research and conclusions were being ripped off, or if my original fiction was being shamelessly copied. And as a fellow student who did all of her own work it wasn't fair that someone who had more time to make everything look pretty got all the credit and I got none.
It's the same way with the writers vs the guys who make and sell the dvds: Sure, the package looks pretty, but who made what's inside it? The WRITERS.
And Steve Vander Ark worked hard on the Harry Potter Lexicon. Ms. Rowling herself admitted that she used the site sometimes when she was writing. Yes, it's difficult to gather that large volume of information and produce a pleasing and efficient, and coherent, whole. It's hard to make an encyclopedia with the volume of information given to the fans by Ms. Rowling in the books, on her website, and in interviews. But does that give him the right to make money off of it? No, it doesn't. It's a good website, and a great resource for fans of the series who, like me, have an obsessive attitude about Harry Potter minutia. It's a great place to go if you want to find out what chapter something happened in or someone's favorite color. And the fact that it's a website means that you can get linked instantly from one place to another for even more information. But that STILL doesn't give him the right to make money off of something created and owned by SOMEONE ELSE.
We just don't give the people who create the things we love enough credit. We don't give researchers enough credit, either. We take from them constantly. Basic television is free. You don't have to pay anyone to watch the local news channels. And what's on the local news channels happens to be some of the best televison out there. So we take for granted what we're given for free and demand more, more, more. We complain when an episode isn't quite as good as it could have been. We feel let down. We forget that the people creating it all are only human, just like us.
Writing is hard, no matter what you're writing. Fiction, non-fiction, tv shows, the stuff that Jay Leno says... it's hard to be funny, or dramatic, or whatever on demand. It can take weeks to get just a couple of really good scenes written. It can take hours to create one joke. And when someone comes in and watches it for free, and then complains about it, I can imagine that it feels like a slap across the face. And the writers don't get paid for internet downloads, even though selling episodes or whole seasons of a television show is a very, very fast growing market. People are making a lot of money off of iTunes sales. The people who aren't making money are the people who created it all in the first place, the writers. Before there's a snappy line delivery, before there's a great scene full of great lighting and good acting and direction, before the audience falls down laughing, someone had to write it all down, and write it all down well.
It doesn't even matter if J. K. Rowling is a billionaire or if the writers in Hollywood are just whining over nothing. They worked damn hard, and for other people to profit off of their hard work is just inexcusable. Normally I hate it when someone says "it's the principle of the thing!", but that's really what it boils down to. The person who did the work is the person who should get the credit. Rearranging the way that work is presented (as in Steve Vander Ark's case) or being the people who broadcast and package the work (as in the producer's case- the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, that is, the studios, production companies, networks, and individuals that the WGA is striking against) doesn't change the fact that a person, or a group of people, worked hard first.
It's hard to remember this, but good movies, television shows, plays, music, and books don't just spring into being. They have to be made, and made well, by real people. It's those real people who deserve at least some credit for what they do.
Oh, and if the writer's strike goes on for much longer, the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) and the DGA (Director's Guild of America) will be striking with them. And in July the SAG and the DGA may strike, and if they do, the WGA will strike along with them. We're in for a lot of foreign imports, reality television, and, sigh, reruns. Even if the WGA's strike doesn't last long, it'll still impact pretty much everything we watch, on television or the big screen. According to Wikipedia, "CBS News and CBS's locally owned and operated station news operations are currently subject to a different strike action by WGA which may be authorized November 15, as CBS News writers under WGA have been without a contract with the network since April 2005." So... yeah, television is just screwed right now. Even animation may be affected. Even shows that have scripts stockpiled will suffer because the writers won't be available for rewrites. So any new television we do get is likely to be crap.
One last, unrelated, and important thing: Bianca, I'm here for you if you need me for any reason, even if you just want to rant to thin air or something. And lots of hugs, too. <3
-12:17 AM
