insert norma rae joke here

The media frenzy surrounding the Writer's Guild strike is pretty fascinating. Thank goodness Tina Fey and Eva Longoria walked the line, otherwise, mainstream America would have trouble putting a face on the scribes' plight.
I wholly support the strike. When I lived in LA, I had a variety of jobs, all of which involved screenwriters. I interned for a producer at Paramount who gets along with and nurtures writers famously. I ended up as the assistant to a lit manager, on the phone with writers everyday. Most of the writers I knew were sharp, talented and friendly. All were passionate.
Given my experience, I consider myself fairly familiar with the writer's place on the Hollywood food chain. Considering the industry's mammoth cash flow, writers are underpaid and under-appreciated. Talent salaries invite a somber comparison. Compound this with the harried neurosis of a creative mind, and you've got a potentially prickly set who are (mostly) too smart for the town they call home.
This strike isn't about general salary; it's about new media. Sure, DVD residuals are on the table again, and that's good. Writers only see a slim portion of those proceeds, and considering the cash cow that is the home video market, they deserve a bigger cut. Digital content and the internet are the real issues here. Writers want to be protected for the online content they create. Pretty simple. If someone creates a character online who becomes a youtube phenom, they want to be protected and see residuals if a sitcom or movie deal ever happens. They just want the same protection online that they have in other mediums.
So why are the studios so resistant? Because these demands force them to examine their currently outdated business model. Hollywood has been mystified and confused with the digital realm for a while now. Without the tangibility of a DVD, a ticket stub or a CD, they're at a loss for how to make money. They're both eager to make every possible penny but also afraid to change the way things are and risk tipping the ever-tenuous balance that holds the town together. Fear and greed? Yep, that's a pretty volatile cocktail.