Remember the movie THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT?
(No? then look it up on IMDB)
It was made up of clips just like this and grossed a lot of money for MGM in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and it begat two sequels. Millions of dollars were made off just that. How many “Best of” shows could I cut with a rule like this? Lots of them.

This issue is a big loss if SAG lets it happen.

Some of those “damn fools” might disagree with your assesssment of their contributions.

Perhaps, Peggy, but it’s not AMPTP’s job to have a heart. Their purpose is to make money. We’re the crazy ones who do this insanity “for the love of the game.” Not them.

If I as a fan or viewer upload a clip of something the Big Companies distribute to YouTube or some other online video site, you can bet that the conglomerates will try to sue me and enjoin me and fine me 12 ways to Sunday even if I don’t charge anything to the people who want to see what I’m uploading. And assuming even if have a ‘good reason’ to upload it (like I’m critiquing it or I’m just sharing one of their promotional clips and helping them put backsides in theater seats or in front of the tube with my recommendations) the companies can be arbitrary and capricious in granting me permission to do so.

However if actors ask the conglomerates to grant them the same permissions before they go all posting and promotion happy, look how they squeal like stuck pigs and flip out about being ‘inconvenienced’ (crying how it’s ‘too expensive’ to do the paperwork). And I’ll bet that not only will they mess around with these clips manipulating them ad nauseum, they’ll be hot to charge me and other viewers and fans for them and yet still figure out how to do the bookkeeping so creatively that yet again the actors won’t get paid for these despite their professions of their alleged willingness to pay actors for these clips.

Believe me I am more motivated than ever to disintermediate the companies from the process…it’s time to cut the greedy crazy middlemen out already and let actors act and fans and viewers watch and make sure that payments flow directly from audience to talent. I can’t wait for something like a Live Nation for visual media to come along and eject them from my life.

Peggy Lane O’Rourke

As I understand the AMPTP’s proposal, the moguls could take clips of an actor, do digital motion capture of their performance (including voice), and generate a “performance” of the actor in an entirely new project.

For example, want to see Groucho Marx circa Duck Soup paired up with Sandra Bullock circa Demolition Man? Done. You wouldn’t even need the current Sandra Bullock. Wait. Groucho isn’t tall enough? Not a problem. We can make him taller. We have the technology.

This is just one aspect of the brave new world actors are facing.

Again, I am not privy to the details of the AMPTP’s proposal. IMHO, AFTRA about gave away the store by giving away clips in the Network Code. I would be wary even of SAG’s “consent and negotiate” counterproposal. Firm rules need to be in place to protect actors’ visage, voice, livelihood, and reputation going into the future.

The clip issue is huge. Far larger than many might think at first glance. Vigilance is required.

They won’t listen to reasonable requests, and striking doesn’t seem to help. They can lose the war of words in the media until the cows come home; no skin off their nose. So what’s the solution? If we look at the AMPTP side of the equation, we see a few behemoth companies calling the shots that screw the creatives, while the lower-level companies throw up their hands and say “hey, what can we do.”

I think the same thing needs to happen on the union side. We need the top earners — people like Brad Pitt and Reese Witherspoon — to stand up with a proposal in hand and say, “Accept these terms or we will never work for you again.” Look, if the AMPTP could get away with saying that scripted programming doesn’t affect their bottom line, George Clooney should be able to say convincingly that acting doesn’t affect his.

That’s a condition that comes from reading too many Membership First e-mails.

Nobody proposed elimination of lunch breaks. If you’re going to make a deal you make a deal.

Our guys thought they were going to prove what big dicks they have, so they puffed out their chests and strutted around the room.

On the other side the reaction was we’ve seen idiots come and we’ve seen idiots go.

See ya!

Unless the IATSE, DGA, etc., come out and publicly denounce this bad faith bargaining of the AMPTP, we’ll have SAG being forced to strike.

And the only ones to blame will be the AMPTP. But they won’t care a lick. A strike will enable them to force majeur lots of deals.