fandomhigh | Lawyering Up, Week 5: Wed, Period 2 (2/6)

"Entertainment law," Nathan said as he passed that week's handouts around, "focuses on law as it applies to movies, television, music - if it entertains you, there's a lawyer involved somewhere in it. If said lawyer is lucky enough to be with the right performer or studio, there's a nice chunk of change to be made here. If that's the sort of thing you're into."

Nathan leaned against the front of his desk. "Entertainment Law is big news at the moment thanks to a little thing you may have heard of called the WGA strike. This is contract law at its most nitty-gritty, with both sides bringing out their biggest guns to try to get the best agreement.

"That's where you come in," Nathan said. "Pair up. One of you gets to represent the studios. The other the writers. Try to figure out a deal that both of you can live with so the strike can be brought to a close. Who knows? Come up with a good enough idea and maybe we'll send it on to Hollywood. Wouldn't be the first time a bunch of school kids were smarter than the networks."

[ooc: OCD ~~a-coming~~ is up!]

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Turtle's head bobbed, but she was slow to look up from her notes. "Yup," she said. "Sure am, Ronan. Shall we, then?"

Rather than responding directly, Ronan shifted his posture slightly, and then his cadences. "All we're asking for," he began, "is a fair and reasonable deal. Something that will allow us to correct mistakes that were made previously, as well as properly account for changes in the media industry."

So he wanted to just jump right in. Good enough. Turtle nodded. "Explain to me again," she said, eying Ronan steadily, "is why there were mistakes in the first place." She definitely had to make sure she had a good idea of where Ronan was coming from before working up to blowing him out of the water on why he was wrong.

"Well," Ronan said. "Neither of us judged correctly how an... unproven market... would take off, and so we the writers feel that adjustments should be made to the current residual policy to reflect that. At the same time, we don't wish to make the same mistakes with the newest... unproven market."

Turtle listened carefully, nodding thoughtfully. Finally, she spoke again, "Were you, or were you not, aware of the conditions that you would be entering into when you entered into them? I suppose I can see where you might be coming from if an overview of the conditions were not readily available at your disposal for consideration, but I could be mistaken in my belief that they were, in fact, available."

"We were well aware of the conditions at the time," Ronan replied, a soft smile on his face. "However, the times have changed, and history has shown that the decisions made at the time have not, in fact, been the best decisions for all parties involved. While it might be bad form to ask that reparations be made for what could be viewed as offences against the writers by the production companies, that's not what we're asking: we're asking that, in our current negotiations, the policies regarding the payments of residuals be changed to better reflect the reality of the markets that they represent."

Turtle nodded. "And what, exactly, might you feel would be an acceptable negotiation to reflect those changes?"

"I believe we made that quite clear in our proposal," Ronan said. "0.6% of the residuals from DVD and other home video sales. A similar system of residuals from internet markets."

Hey, now, can't blame a girl for wanting everything be laid out and plain crystal clear to know that they were all for sure on the same page here, right? "I agree with the 0.6% is completely acceptable," because, really, she did. What the heck was up with the prudish entertainment people? If she were in the writer's camp, she'd totally feel entitled to more, and if she were in the other camp, she'd be willing to give it. She sighed slightly, shaking her head at the system, which more and more she realized just direly needed her. "Internet markets can be a little trickier, though. You wanna talk about the changing frontiers, well..." Her eyes widened, and she gave an affected little grunt.

"My point," Ronan said, "our point, is that it was that same hesitation to commit over the idea of the 'unproven market' that left the Writer's Guild saddled with an unfair policy over residuals from home video releases. What we're saying is that we don't want to see the same thing happen again."

Lawyering Up, Week 5: Wed, Period 2 (2/6)

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