With the WGA strike over, and a SAG strike looming in the coming year over “new media” aka internet streaming this should come as no surprise
The AMPTP HAS YET TO PAY WRTIERS RESIDUALS FOR INTERNET STREAMS. That’s right. Those full streaming epispodes of The Colbert Report or The Daily Show, The Office and so on? The WRITERS ARE NOT GETTING PAID. and why? “too difficult”

Today, the Writers Guild of America, West, confirmed what they’d warned about a few weeks ago: that the media conglomerates of the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers – the AMPTP – have failed to comply with the contract negotiated to end the Guild’s 100-day strike by not paying residuals for writers’ work that is reused on New Media. These payments were the key issue of the WGA strike so the WGAW said today it’s starting “an aggressive contract enforcement program – including legal action – to ensure that the AMPTP companies make good on their obligations”. To that end, the WGAW filed for arbitration today against the AMPTP over residuals for programs sold as electronic downloads (aka ESTs, or Electronic Sell-Through) involving the sale of video content via the Internet which allows the purchaser to keep a copy of a program permanently on a computer hard drive or other device. In addition to taking legal action, the WGAW is undertaking a campaign of extensive member outreach and education on contract enforcement issues so that writers can help monitor the progress of enforcing the 2008 Minimum Basic Agreement.

“Our agreement with the companies on material released to EST covers feature films produced after July 1, 1971, and television programs produced after 1977,” said John Bowman, chair of the 2007 WGA Negotiating Committee. “The companies have reneged on this agreement and are taking the position that only programs produced after February 13, 2008 are covered by the new provision. This may be their deal with the DGA, but that was never our agreement. Every proposal we made during negotiations made clear our position that library product was covered, and the AMPTP never objected to that position. The Guild will not allow this to stand.”…Said WGAW President Patric Verrone: “The companies know what is being streamed, and they regularly announce how successful they are in generating online advertising revenue, so there’s no reason for them not to honor the agreement they made with us.”

And, how did hte AMPTP repsond? By calling them liars

Love Nikki Finke and her top reporting on this.