Hollywood Unions Want Cut of iTunes Pie

Published on October 20th, 2005

FOXNews.com – Technology – Hollywood Unions Want Cut of iTunes Pie

LOS ANGELES — In a show of unity, five unions representing actors, writers and directors issued a joint call for talks to make sure their members get a cut of revenue generated by the sale of TV shows on Apple’s iTunes software.

The unions sent a clear message to TV producers.

“We have not yet heard from the responsible employers of our members,” their joint statement said. “But we look forward to a dialogue that ensures that our members are properly compensated for this exploitation of their work.”

The presidents of unions representing Hollywood writers and actors were lunching at a popular Beverly Hills restaurant on Wednesday when they saw a TV report about a deal to allow episodes of ABC shows such as “Lost” to be downloaded for portable viewing on the new video iPod

5 users responded in " Hollywood Unions Want Cut of iTunes Pie "

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# 1 Movi said, on October 20th, 2005 at 3:10 pm

Exploitation? Who’s getting exploited here? Don’t we ALREADY pay $1.99 per show? Can you spell the magic words? g-r-e-e-d

# 2 Jon said, on October 21st, 2005 at 5:23 am

Well, at least it’s not against Apples; they are probably still not making much profit with ITunes, all they care about is selling IPODs. ABC should be sharing the profits with these people though. Keyword, “should”….

# 3 Improbus said, on October 21st, 2005 at 5:57 am

Evidently, G-R-E-E-D is good in every decade … not just the 80′s.

# 4 Ima Fish said, on October 21st, 2005 at 6:15 am

Unlike the music industry, where the artists rarely get paid, in the world of Hollywood everyone gets paid. See, unions do occasionally work!

Thus, all those actors and writers, and producers, directors, choreographers etc who worked on those TV shows get paid when they get aired in syndication, when released to DVD, even when they get aired on an iPod. I don’t see how this is news. It’s obvious that these guys deserve their cut.

# 5 BOB G said, on October 22nd, 2005 at 3:21 am

I have always wished I could get paid for work I did years ago. I have never understood that. My work is more useful then hollywoods people use my work everyday. But most people whould say I got paid fine when I did the work and whould think it absurd to expect to be paid over and over again.

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