You might be one of those that boast they don’t watch TV or movies, but it’s the only face many in other countries see of ours. It’s also big business that affects us all in many ways, changing our culture for good or bad. And without writers to create the stories to begin with, there ain’t no shows. As a wanna-be screenwriter myself, your old Uncle Dave has been following this with interest.

So, what’s going on? With the fairly recent election of a president with a backbone, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has voted to go on strike. Why? An assortment of smaller issues, but the biggest involved the Interwebitubes. While the union reps the pros, it has implications for anyone who writes shows that end up on the web, are downloaded to iPods and other portable devices, streaming media and so on. In other words, anywhere other than theaters, TV and DVDs. It’s what’s called ‘New Media’ and the studios and networks (all owned by conglomerates who could care less about art or anything other than these divisions must make money) who employ the writers, hit hard by ever falling TV viewership and declining movie going, simply refuse to give up keeping all of this new source of revenue. Even they admit privately the writers are being shafted, but they say they can’t afford to pay them reasonably.

Here’s what they want from an article on the DeadlineHollywoodDaily blog. Needless to say the studios and networks see it differently.

What’s the biggest issue? Internet and New Media

1. Residuals for reuse of content (like replaying tv shows) on the internet. We’re asking for residuals of 2.5% of revenue — that means for every dollar they get paid, we’d get 2 and a half cents. It’s a flat percentage, so if they’re right and they’re never ever going to make a penny, well then, we won’t either.

2. Coverage and protections for original content (new stuff we create for the internet.) We’re asking for basic protections so that when we write original stuff for the internet, we have rights — health and pension, minimum amounts, credits and separated rights (so if we make some amazing character or show, we get the right to share in its success.) We’re just asking for the same protections we already have for writing in TV or film. Nothing new or weird. Just the basics.

DVDs: Currently we get .3% per dvd, we’re asking for .6%. Translation: now we get 4 cents per dvd. We are asking for 8 cents per dvd. Since most DVD’s cost at least 10 bucks, that doesn’t exactly seem like a bank-breaker.

The effects on TV shows won’t really hit until January when the networks run out of the episodes that have been shot. The expectation is they’ll toss on cheap, no-need-for-writers reality crap. Movie studios have been stockpiling scripts, so it will take longer to affect them, but if this is a long strike like the last one in 1998, they’ll hit the pile of scripts that got rejected previously.

Few in Hollywood make the big money. Most crew members and character actors make middle class wages at best and will be hard hit. The film business is LA’s 3rd largest industry, so a strike impacts thousands of restaurants, stores and business indirectly. The Teamsters (who move equipment and rep people like casting directors) have said they will honor the picket lines, effectively shutting down most productions.

Today, the writers vote on exactly when in the next few days to strike. If it lasts long, the effects will be felt worldwide.