'Suits' Was Streamed For 3 Billion Minutes on Netflix and the Writers Were Collectively Paid $3,000
stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to 
nofilmschool.com
The sorry state of streaming residuals shows why SAG and the WGA are striking.
You are viewing a single comment
Warning: unpopular opinion here.
From the article:
So, I am an engineer/scientist. Products that I have developed/contributed to development are used by billions of people. Most likely you, the reader of this comment are using it right now, because some of the products I worked on are telecom products, that are widely used to transfer information.
The amount of secondary payouts I receive is EXACTLY ZERO.
My honest question is, why those writers should be any different? They should be paid when they make their products, according to the contract they signed. But why many think they entitled to something more?
And no, I do not think that argument "but it is difficult work, it is not constant" works here. There are lots of difficult, non-constant, seasonal, whatever jobs there that pay even less.
You get what you demand, and what you bargain for, which is why they are now on strike. You valued your knowledge, experience, and expertise in telcom, in different ways, and less over the long term, than workers in the entertainment industry, who, for the majority of the entertainment industry's existence, have been taken advantage of by the producers of that entertainment. You decided to work for a salary and benefits, and got yours upfront, their industry works a different way as a result of historically predatory entertainment industry practices.
Like others have said, this is the wrong mentality. Instead of asking "why should they get it when I don't?", You should simply be asking "why don't I get it?"
Turning us against each other is how the ruling elite stay in power. 💪
What's he's saying is those ruling class shouldn't be getting it either because it's a silly concept lol.
Road crews don't get paid from tolls. Power plants don't get paid beaucoup. Etc. Etc.
The root issue is the company profiting endlessly or simply not paying appropriate wages. IP law absolutely needs to change.
Melancholy Elephants is a great Hugo Award winning short story about this train of thought.
Well what jobs are you thinking about?
"unskilled labour" is a myth.
How so?
I worked on products that many Lemmy users are using to read and post. I don't expect residuals because that's not how my industry was built / ever worked.
Writers are in an industry that previously paid them every time their work made money. That's the difference.