Below is the letter from the Board of Directors of the WGA West to all Screenwriters of the international community from the U.S. screenwriters, thanking for their support.
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Dear Members of the International Writers’ Community:
We at the Writers Guild of America extend our heartfelt thanks to members of the international community for your unprecedented and robust outpouring of support for our cause on International Solidarity Day on November 28. We were moved and inspired by the hundreds of scribes who marched in front of the Eiffel Tower in France, at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany, and on the streets of Canada, England, Australia, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Wales, and Mexico. Clearly, our fight to win fair compensation from global media corporations has struck a chord with writers everywhere.
The scope of the protests was truly impressive: In Berlin, over 100 German writers carried WGA picket signs at the Brandenburg Gate. Hundreds of writers marched in freezing temperatures in Montreal and Toronto. In Amsterdam, an auditorium full of writers cheered our cause. We have heard from the Portuguese Screenwriters Guild, the Writers Guild of Great Britain, the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Screenwriters Guild of Germany, and the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe. Members of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild marched for our cause dressed as leprechauns!
At home, WGA members with international backgrounds marched at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. Jean-Yves Pitoun, a French native and WGA West member, stressed that the fight in the U.S. has an impact abroad: “Europeans are very carefully watching the writers, actors, and directors in the U.S. because Rupert Murdoch is everywhere.”
We thank you for reinforcing that fair compensation for writers is a worldwide cause. Together our voices will be heard.
Sincerely,
Board of Directors
Writers Guild of America West
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Through this posts you will have access to know the situation of the screenwriters in Spain and possibly, other Spanish Speaking countries, and compare with your own.
As witnessed in the Screen Writers Festival, the problems of writers in a specific country are much the same as in others.
We can see that in what´s going on with the strike of the US. We suffer the same issues here. But worse. For example, we do not get a single cent for a DVD sold in the stores or distributed by national newspapers.
So why the major companies insist in antipiracy saying it is to benefit authors?
The pathetic truth is the "screenwriter paradox":
If someone copies one of our movies in a virgin DVD, we get more money than if he buys it in the store.
How i this possible? Every person who buys a virgin DVD pays a price that includes small fee for copying (canon) and we get some tiny amount out of that. So even if he copies an original movie, we get paid something. However, if someone buys an original DVD from the store we get NOTHING at all!
Isn´t that crazy?
Isn´t it crazy either that big institutions and companies say anti-piracy is for the sake of authors when we get NOTHING?
In July 2007 EGEDA, society that takes care of the rights of the producers, distributed a letter between its members stating they should not give a cent of the DVD rights to authors. So...
What is the manipulation here?
Though these pages you will be able to discover many of the aspects of the audiovisual market in a spirit to invite change.
We writers have the power to change things, together with all creative positions in the film industry: directors, actors, etc. We are part of the game and we want to be recognized properly for what we really are.
To the health of authors!
Posted at: 09:38 AM | Permalink
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