The most interesting, and important, issue on the table is digital rights. It's important because it is the first major labor dispute over internet content. Writers are largely striking for residuals from downloadable and streaming digital distribution of their work. The dispute is a recognition that the internet may have as transformative an effect of film and television as it already has on music and publishing.
But it's also important because it demonstrates just how savvy Hollywood writers are about using the internet as a means of communication. Since the start of the strike, the web has been flooded with satiric web pages, YouTube videos, and writers' blogs presenting the writers' side of the strike. (Two of the best are Fred Armisen's recurring portrayal of the blissfully vicious studio head Roger A. Trevanti, and the studio heads of the fictional MegaPictures BFD, who occasionally show up to plead with the writers to accept the AMPTP's offers, which come with a full page of coupons.) As the strike plays out, many writers are starting to look to the web as an alternative to the studios, and are in negotiations to script web-only productions. In the past few years, there has been a constant flow of talent to the web from publishing and music; this strike could create a similar moment for Hollywood writers, who may turn to the web in droves. As this past six weeks have shown, they already have a talent for it.
Max Sparber is a playwright and arts journalist in Minneapolis. He is the editor of MNSpeak.com, on online forum for Twin Cities news, arts, and politics.