"How people can believe that paying a small amount of money to the composers/writers of the music allows them rights to any performance of that music is beyond my comprehension."
It is not any performance that I believe we are entitled to. It is "reproductions" of a performance that we are entitled to. I still believe whole heartedly in paying hand of fist to see concerts, actual live performances. But, I feel that is it unconscionable to charge for reproductions of performances when there is clearly no effort of the performer. There would be no performance without the writers, so I think it is fair that they are the only one that get the profit.
Writers/composer should be rewarded for introducing enrichment into society, and performers should be paid to perform, nothing more.
Sure, just like American factory workers are pricing themselves out of the market by refusing to work 60 hours a week for $10 a day.
Not exactly. Since factory workers are working to make ends meet. The voice actors are just looking to get some iceing on the cake. But, your point is not lost on me.
Why the hell not? How many BILLIONS is Fox likely to make off the show? Would you think it fair if your company made $500 an hour off your work, but only paid you $10 in return?
Again, not exactly the same, but I get your point. I have actually had a situation similiar to this, thought it dealt with bigger number, essentially, my services allowed a company to save 1,000% of my service fee. And, essentially that is the point of capitalism right: gain money by building on the backs of those lower in the food chain?
The figures I pulled were just bottom lines. I did not account for "perks" and what not. They are real, I did not make any numbers up. They just aren't all the numbers.
Unfortunately, issues like this are what lead to reality television. The simple fact is that writers, actors, and in this case voice actors are pricing themselves out of the business. Sometimes it seems like a big deal to give out the $1 million dollar bounty at the end of reality TV shows, but that is really chump change. The voice actors are currently making $2.75 million per season. That is $2.75 million for talking into a microphone. Is that honestly justified in itself? Now, if they get their raise that would kick them up to $7.92 million per season. To put this in perspective, the president earns a $400,000 annual salary, with a $50,000 expense account, so effectively $450,000. If you figure the difference between the president's annual salary, and the price of one voice over for the Simpsons, it comes out to $90,000. So, apparently, running the great nation of the United States for a year is only 125% of the difficulty of doing a voice over for one episode of the Simpsons. Think about that.
Furthermore, in all likelihood the money actually exists and it is more than likely going into the pockets of network executives. I am in no way stating that this is a great state of affairs either. My point here is the misappropriation of funds in corporate television. I would much rather see the $5.17 million go into better programming. The networks need to take more risks; in the past shows had more than a few episodes to pull in the ratings, they might not have even been any good in the first season, but they were still renewed and allowed to grow. It seems like now, if you do not bring in the big numbers immediately you are cut and usually not even allowed to finish out your first season. Thus, as the actors want more money--and the executives want to keep their pockets well lined--we are stuck in our current state of affairs with such horrors as Survivor, and whatever other reality TV is still floating around.
This is just one example of the disturbing trend in the growth of corporate power in the United States. It seems that in the past we have thrived with a powerful consumer driven society, where business tried to please the consumer, and decisions made by the consumers had an impact. Well, that is not longer the case. Now corporations are developing into monopolies, and have entirely too much impact on the government. Thus, if a corporate group does not like the policies of consumers, they will change the laws in their favors to punish consumers for undesirable behavior. In the past business would adjust to the consumers' desires.
The disturbing trend appears to stem from the stagnation of our government, and the efficiency of the corporation. If we continue on our current course we will soon abolish government, and be run by corporations in a truly hellish world. In conclusion, I believe that the Simpsons going on strike is a sign of the end of times, so repent, rinse, and repeat.
Slashdot Mirror
"How people can believe that paying a small amount of money to the composers/writers of the music allows them rights to any performance of that music is beyond my comprehension."
It is not any performance that I believe we are entitled to. It is "reproductions" of a performance that we are entitled to. I still believe whole heartedly in paying hand of fist to see concerts, actual live performances. But, I feel that is it unconscionable to charge for reproductions of performances when there is clearly no effort of the performer. There would be no performance without the writers, so I think it is fair that they are the only one that get the profit.
Writers/composer should be rewarded for introducing enrichment into society, and performers should be paid to perform, nothing more.
Sure, just like American factory workers are pricing themselves out of the market by refusing to work 60 hours a week for $10 a day.
Not exactly. Since factory workers are working to make ends meet. The voice actors are just looking to get some iceing on the cake. But, your point is not lost on me.
Why the hell not? How many BILLIONS is Fox likely to make off the show? Would you think it fair if your company made $500 an hour off your work, but only paid you $10 in return?
Again, not exactly the same, but I get your point. I have actually had a situation similiar to this, thought it dealt with bigger number, essentially, my services allowed a company to save 1,000% of my service fee. And, essentially that is the point of capitalism right: gain money by building on the backs of those lower in the food chain?
This comparison is so arbitrary to be hilarious.
That was kind of the point.
The figures I pulled were just bottom lines. I did not account for "perks" and what not. They are real, I did not make any numbers up. They just aren't all the numbers.
Unfortunately, issues like this are what lead to reality television. The simple fact is that writers, actors, and in this case voice actors are pricing themselves out of the business. Sometimes it seems like a big deal to give out the $1 million dollar bounty at the end of reality TV shows, but that is really chump change. The voice actors are currently making $2.75 million per season. That is $2.75 million for talking into a microphone. Is that honestly justified in itself? Now, if they get their raise that would kick them up to $7.92 million per season. To put this in perspective, the president earns a $400,000 annual salary, with a $50,000 expense account, so effectively $450,000. If you figure the difference between the president's annual salary, and the price of one voice over for the Simpsons, it comes out to $90,000. So, apparently, running the great nation of the United States for a year is only 125% of the difficulty of doing a voice over for one episode of the Simpsons. Think about that. Furthermore, in all likelihood the money actually exists and it is more than likely going into the pockets of network executives. I am in no way stating that this is a great state of affairs either. My point here is the misappropriation of funds in corporate television. I would much rather see the $5.17 million go into better programming. The networks need to take more risks; in the past shows had more than a few episodes to pull in the ratings, they might not have even been any good in the first season, but they were still renewed and allowed to grow. It seems like now, if you do not bring in the big numbers immediately you are cut and usually not even allowed to finish out your first season. Thus, as the actors want more money--and the executives want to keep their pockets well lined--we are stuck in our current state of affairs with such horrors as Survivor, and whatever other reality TV is still floating around. This is just one example of the disturbing trend in the growth of corporate power in the United States. It seems that in the past we have thrived with a powerful consumer driven society, where business tried to please the consumer, and decisions made by the consumers had an impact. Well, that is not longer the case. Now corporations are developing into monopolies, and have entirely too much impact on the government. Thus, if a corporate group does not like the policies of consumers, they will change the laws in their favors to punish consumers for undesirable behavior. In the past business would adjust to the consumers' desires. The disturbing trend appears to stem from the stagnation of our government, and the efficiency of the corporation. If we continue on our current course we will soon abolish government, and be run by corporations in a truly hellish world. In conclusion, I believe that the Simpsons going on strike is a sign of the end of times, so repent, rinse, and repeat.