After five months of a historic strikethe American Authors Guild announced that it had reached an agreement with the studios to put an end to the movement.
Since this morning, American authors have left the picket line to return to writing, effectively putting an end to the second longest strike in the history of the profession. To achieve this result, the studios have, after months without moving, agreed to make concessions on almost all of the screenwriters’ demands, which implies better protection against the emergence of AI in the creative industries and better revenue sharing by streaming platforms.
And precisely, the latter will not have to content themselves with upgrading the authors who design their programs, but will fundamentally modify their service to offer more transparency on the success of the programs in question. Given their historical operation, this means a real change in method, which will force them in particular to publish the real audience figures they record.
The terms of the agreement
The social movement of American screenwriters was centered around two main subjects: the protection of their profession in the face of the emergence of AI in the creative industries, and an increase in the income they receive, particularly from platforms. paid streaming services.
And I might as well say it straight away: they were completely satisfied. According to the agreement that was reached, artificial intelligence cannot be used to write or rewrite scripts or design pitches for new programs which would be written by real screenwriters. It is this last point which worried the most, because in such a case, the framework which prompts ChatGPT to give it program ideas theoretically owns the rights to them… Furthermore, the work of these authors cannot be used to train AIs.
As for revenues, the WGA also won its case: scripts for series on streaming platforms should see their prices increase by at least 18%, to which must be added a bonus for programs bringing together the most hearing.
For streaming platforms, this means more than just increased revenue for authors
Because until then, Netflix, Prime Video or even Disney+ were more or less free to present the figures they wanted when estimating the success or not of a series, and therefore the choice to extend it, but also the copyright for their designers.
Now, the agreement that has been reached will force them to present to the WGA clear figures of the number of hours streamed in the United States and internationally. They will therefore have much less freedom to prematurely end a successful series (or the opposite) by citing a lack of audience based on opaque figures. And if this data will be protected from the public by a confidentiality clause, the VOD platforms still lose the monopoly on information here.
It should be noted that the end of the strike initiated by the Authors Guild should not mean a resumption of production. The actors also started their own social movement, for demands similar to those of the screenwriters.
Source : The Verge, Wired
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