Writer Strikes ending and New Media

I saw this article from the 10th of Feb...actually, my student wrote about the BBC and CNN articles for an assignment and the quote they used grabbed my attention. Here is an excerpt from the BBC article followed by my thoughts on it...

"Writers Guild of America (WGA) members discussed the settlement plan at meetings in New York and Los Angeles on Saturday.
"We had a very lively discussion. I'm happy with what happened," said Michael Winship, president of the WGA, East, after the meeting in New York.
Earlier, Mr Winship and his West Coast counterpart, Patric Verrone, told their members the proposed deal was "an agreement that protects a future in which the internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery".
"It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, 'When they get paid, we get paid'." "

This is a debate that has been on the minds of scholars for a long time. Questions of "Who owns the internet?" "How do you police the internet to make sure that copywrighted material is protected, etc." Since everyone, including Hollywood writers are beginning to question this, it validates all the studies and papers and theories we are learning. It validates our field.

I can't really decide if I am happy the strike ended the way it did or not...Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that Lost and ER and Grey's Anatomy and 24 will continue without interruption...the new seasons are kind of the highlight of my winter. But at the same time, I have to question accessability. Are they now going to make us pay to gain access to movie and television scripts? If that is the case, there are going to be some that cannot afford to pay for them, and the great thing about the internet is having free (for the most part) information at your fingertips. When we start restricting information and charging for it, could it not lead to further class division in this country?