On the Writers Guild, the Strike and Royalties

This might apply to actors as well, but I haven't thought about them as much. Mostly because I wrote for living. I wrote code, not TV or movie scripts, and did a few supporting activities to people who wrote code that paid even more. (It is good to be the specialist!)

If I took a job for a company, and wrote a program or application, or helped to develop a system that made that company hundreds of millions of dollars, I would be entitled to exactly nothing in terms of "residuals" or royalties. The intellectual property would belong to the company who paid my salary. Granted, everyone knew that going in, so the salaries reflected that. If I actually worked for the company as an employee and not a contractor, I would probably have been eligible for stock options. And you can always buy stock on the open market - if it isn't closely held or a startup.

So why do writers and actors believe that they are entitled to royalties when people who write code are not? "Because we've always done it that way" is not of interest to me. Most people at companies who were fighting against the changes we were introducing - and my teams put whole divisions of people out of work - were fighting for the "old ways." The same actors/writers/denizens of Hollywood fighting for "the old ways" are the same people telling you that they are going to deconstruct the old ways - except for how they get paid. [Insert Rachel Zegler quote here.]

Then there is the question of Artificial Intelligence or AI. The writers and actors don't like the new technology and want to forbid its use. That is a losing proposition. The buggy whip manufacturers didn't like the automobile. I bet that people who made Fax machines didn't like email. Or do you think we should give up fuel injection in favor of carburetors again? "Computer" was a job title, back in the dark ages before the modern computer was invented, and became widespread. The computer put a lot of people out of work. Should we forbid its use to reemploy all those people doing computations for accounting?

Imagine Teamsters from back in the days when they actually drove teams of horses or oxen. I'm sure they would have preferred to forbid the use of internal combustion engines, because one diesel engine and one teamster can haul 80,000 pounds today; that is as much as a score of teamsters and teams of horses. Should we go back to the horse and buggy days because some people don't like modern tech? Or is it only a problem because today's tech threatens people with college degrees? When we closed those divisions by way of new software programs, the HR and accounting departments went with the manufacturing floors - and we were only implementing accounting controls, for the most part. (People with college degrees were let go in large numbers.)

So the writers... The crap that has been coming out of Hollywood doesn't deserve anyone's sympathy, much less support. The She Hulk show was a travesty, especially from someone like me who is a fan of the original comics. (I have not seen the whole series, and I won't.) The entire Star Wars saga has been destroyed by the writers of Lucasfilm. (I saw the original movie in the theater, more than once.) If those shows/movies were apps, they would NOT be making the companies hundreds of millions of dollars. What do the writers think they are entitled to? Or the actors? Why do they believe they are entitled to anything more than anyone else? "Because we've always done it that way," is not a good reason.