Word has it that the reason those three Green Isle Foods employees were terminated is "improper use of the company's IT system, including the spreading of adult material." I don't know if that's code for "They sent a few links and pics!" or "They set up a mini studio by the assembly line!" Either way, I'm kinda concerned about how this whole strike will affect my late night snacking. [Leinster Leader]

Photo by lintmachine

If you write for a show and are on strike and are interested in doing some writing for us on pretty much whatever the hell you want (as long as it's somewhat related to the sort of stuff we cover now), shoot me an email and lets talk about it. We'd love to get you in front of the keyboards again, even if it's not for the shows that you're used to writing for. And hey, we pay based on traffic, which is just like residuals, so you can get used to that for when you do go back to work after getting your demands met from those dickbags at the studios. Note that we won't be able to toss work to every single writer who's interested, but we'll do what we can. Those of you who write for sci-fi shows such as Futurama or Battlestar Galactica will get first dibs and big, wet, sloppy, fanboy kisses.

Ars points out that right now writers pull about four to six cents a DVD, so a two-million seller will bring them between $80,000 and $120,000 on a title raking in millions for the studio. Even though it's a less-than-stellar deal, at least it scales. The $250 flat internet re-distribution payment and fixed $1300 for 15 minutes of internet-only content doesn't, which is a problem in a couple of ways.

For one, these contracts are in place for a long time—when the initial deal regarding DVD sales were made, DVD wasn't very big. In today's climate, they're studios' biggest cash cows, and writers get the short end of the stick. This deal would lock them into the same rate for internet distribution and content, no matter how big new media gets, and it's obviously going to be huge, so they're standing to get screwed even harder here.

On a smaller scale, it means no matter how many clicks—and therefore ad dollars—a video drew, writers would still get the same tiny compensation. The guild's going over this "proposal" until Tuesday, when talks resume, but our feeling is that you better have a hard love for reruns, reality TV or YouTube. [Ars Technica]

What the guild's asking for with online or mobile distribution is 2.5 percent of the "distributors' gross revenue." Apparently this is tricky for distributors because it's difficult to tell what percentage of the online audience is new to a show or old hands simply shifting to a different medium—I'm guessing this is a problem for the issue at hand because producers don't want to pay writers twice for the same audience.

But, it seems unfair to only compensate writers for content explicitly purchased by viewers (like on iTunes), particularly as more and more content shifts online supported by ads, even if that ad revenue is nowhere near what is for broadcast for the time being. It's only going to get bigger, so they should get a hold of what they can, while they can, lest they feel screwed once again in a few years. [WSJ]

In Times of Crisis, You Must Draw a Line [Gawker]