Actors, Hollywood, fight over online videos
p2pnet news | Movies:- Hollywood actors and the major studios are fighting over whether or not actors should give their OK for video clips of their film and TV appearances to be shown online, and if they do, how much they should get for them.
Under 50-year-old Screen Actors Guild contract rules, each performer is entitled to at least the ‘day-player’ minimum of $759, even if the clip is only a few seconds long.
But the studios reckon they should be able to run YouTube-style clips of old TV shows and movies without having to get the actors’ permission, paying them a flat fee rather than haggle with each performer.
However, “What they’re asking us to do is erase 50 years of our customs and practice,” says SAG president Alan Rosenberg, according to Reuters.
The debate, says the story, is the latest example of how the economics of traditional media, “are being upended by the growing popularity of video-sharing Web sites like YouTube, and how audiences’ tastes and habits are being transformed in the process”.
The existing contract covering 120,000 film and TV actors expires June 30 and labour talks between the studios and SAG are expected to resume at the end of this month, say the story, quoting comScore as saying 134 million Americans view online videos each month, the bulk being homemade footage and unauthorized clips of TV shows and movies, some of it video mash-ups such as Brokeback to the Future (see below).
Studios and broadcast networks use clips for promotional purposes without paying the actors anything extra, says Reuters, going on, “But when reusing clips as entertainment, such as inserting outtakes or excerpts from one TV show into another, producers must get consent from every performer appearing in that clip and bargain with each separately on a rate of pay.
Now, as Hollywood tries develop a “legitimate” market for clips, “to compete with the explosion of pirated footage on the Internet,” studios say the old rules have become too “onerous,” the story says, adding:
“Instead, they are seeking a fixed payment to actors for re-use on the Internet in lieu of the bargaining process” but SAG says actors, “fear losing control over their images, especially when it comes to advertising and video ‘mash-ups’.”
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Reuters – Actors and studios clash over Web clips, May 13, 2008
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May 14th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Funny how people sharing the clips for non-commercial use are threatened with 750.00 per clip per incident – yet when the corporation wants to make money from it and when dealing with the artist if suddenly becomes worthless – Perhaps Ray Beckerman could use this argument in his cases when dealing with the riaa and mpaa
May 14th, 2008 at 6:59 am
“What they’re asking us to do is erase 50 years of our customs and practice.”
Why not?
May 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
“What they’re asking us to do is erase 50 years of our customs and practice.”
Really? There are 50 years of customs and practice involved in digital distribution of video clips? SAG needs to get with the program and realize new medium = old stuff no longer valid and in most cases it’s ridiculous to try to fit it into the situation.
“but SAG says actors, “fear losing control over their images, especially when it comes to advertising and video ‘mash-ups’.”
Are they retarded or something?? They’ve ALREADY lost control of it.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
They’ll also be including annoying ads in their clips and obtaining users personal info to sell and use as they see fit. It won’t be given for nothing. I’m not interested in clips or previews anyway but maybe others are.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
i say give em the cash and lets accelerate the NON USE of the internet.
let the corporations have it
lets go into the woods and party like days of old and bring all this dled music with us and trade there. try and deal with real people enmasse.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
ALSO isn’t like arnold whatshisnamespelled at 20million per movie enough you greedy bastards and hollywood is no better
aka starwars 3 doing what(300 million or some crazy figure) over a weekend and then worrying about 75000 bittorrent downloads