American Screenwriters To End Their Three-Month-Old Strike

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents writers in the film and television industries, will return to work on Wednesday after going on strike since July of this year.

The Huffington Post reports that, following a nearly three-month strike, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) East and West reached a settlement with the motion picture and television industries.

They aimed to raise salaries, working conditions, health benefits, and pensions, as well as set limits on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in upcoming television and film productions.

After achieving victories that largely complied with the guild’s demands, the WGA declared an end to the strike.

The union’s summary of what they gained in the new contract states that the writers won many game-changing new provisions. These could create significant precedents for the entertainment sector and, in the case of some issues like artificial intelligence (AI), could have repercussions far beyond Hollywood.

The use of AI-generated content as a source for shows and movies is also prohibited, in addition to rules prohibiting businesses from using AI to write or rewrite shows and movies. If businesses misuse writers’ work and train AI models using it, the union has the legal right to protest. Additionally, businesses must be open and honest about “any materials given to the writer that have been generated by AI or contain AI-generated material.”

As streaming platforms expand their global reach, writers will now receive foreign residual payments for their work.

Additionally, under the new agreement, businesses will be required to disclose viewership statistics for streaming services, which Netflix and other streaming behemoths frequently cherry-picked and reported inconsistently. Currently, businesses must inform the union of “the total number of hours streamed, both domestically and internationally, of self-produced high budget streaming programs (e. g. an original series on Netflix)”

The union will also be allowed to give members a chosen summary of the data.

Throughout the strike, authors criticized business practices that have steadily reduced opportunities for writers and raised awareness of the challenges of earning a living from their craft.