...until the writers strike is settled.
I signed up for Hulu after reading this positive review by Farhad Manjoo on October 29. When I finally got my ticket on Dec 6, I rushed over to check it out, without thinking about the fact that I was *crossing a picket line*. In my defense, at least I didn't watch any programming.
The one time I surfed the site, I thought "damn, this is really cool. It is definitely the future of TV," which is exactly why you shouldn't go there. The writers don't get any money from that site. If the writers don't get a new contract, the day will come when almost all TV is watched on sites like Hulu, and the writers will have effectively taken a massive pay cut and been stripped of their intellectual property rights. A change in medium shouldn't be an opportunity to slash worker's pay.
Ok, I'm sorry I went to Hulu after the strike began. Consider this post a way to make it up.
Hat tip to Molly, who alerted me to this problem by sending me this link.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm lost. Why are we supposed to care who gets paid for what. How is that our problem. Isn't this something their lawyers should be handling. The internet has been around for a long time so why are they thinking of this now. Writers, artists, actors, and musicians think they should be paid forever for their work. It ultimately costs us more. What about engineers, chemists, or software developers. Should they continue to get paid forever. For example the guy who made plastic. These writers are talented and deserve to be paid. What about the crap they produce. What ever happened to salaries and benefits. Hollywood, Motion picture industry, and the music industry won't get any sympathy from me. Sorry to say it. The welfare has to end.
This strike is to video what napster was to music. Musicians were wanting to earn money for their work being given away in a new digital format. The companies are showing movies/shows online and reaping huge advertising moneys. The writers would get paid if the show went into syndication on television, but they don't since it's on a computer screen and not a tv.
Ultimately, I don't like the way that they keep finding ways to milk art for money, but as long as the money is there for quality work, shouldn't part of it go to the people that worked to create it instead of all of it going to a corporation?
-There is a site called OpenHulu that removes the ads and should remove some of the guilt that people my have using hulu since it doesn't feed the companies and starve the writers.
Also:
"The internet has been around for a long time so why are they thinking of this now."
- It has taken this long for a majority of users to own internet that is fast enough to stream video.
Thanks, anon., for the thought and shout out to OpenHulu.
Post a Comment