Writers Guild of America

The Striking Writers and the Striking Lack of Web Hits

Kara Swisher in News on December 19, 2007 at 3:44 am PT

Why does the idea of a marriage between Hollywood writers and VCs make me slightly queasy? But that’s just the feeling I got when I read the always sharp Joseph Menn of the Los Angeles Times, who penned an interesting piece earlier this week about writers in Hollywood turning to venture capitalists as the strike [...]

The Never-Ending Story: The Writers' Strike Continues

Kara Swisher in News on December 10, 2007 at 12:02 am PT

With the entertainment industry reeling from weakness brought on by changing viewers’ watching habits due to the Internet, the news of the talks to end the writers’ strike collapsing on Friday can’t be a good thing for Hollywood. With the strike now in its sixth week, the studio reps–the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television [...]

The Tech 10: The Times They Are A-Changing for Adobe, iPhone and Facebook

John Sullivan in News on November 29, 2007 at 10:19 am PT

Coming to a PDF Near You: Adobe announced today that it is teaming with Yahoo to put text-based ads in PDF files. … The new and improved version of Apple’s iPhone will be able to download from the Internet at a faster rate, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced last night. … For Facebook, Nothing’s Set in Concrete: Responding to criticism from MoveOn, Facebook execs are looking into changes to the recently launched Beacon advertising tool.

Where Is the Content of the Future?

Kara Swisher in News on November 26, 2007 at 12:03 am PT

I have seen the future of online entertainment and–no surprise–it’s not being created by Hollywood. That’s because people there are too busy fighting over nothing these days. Still, Hollywood’s writers and studios come back to the bargaining table again today, resuming their discussions to settle the strike that has been going on for three weeks [...]

Vonage Q3 Patent Settlements Widen

John Paczkowski in News on November 8, 2007 at 11:00 am PT

Writers' Strike Videos on YouTube (Of Course)

Kara Swisher in News on November 8, 2007 at 12:03 am PT

Since they’re fighting with the studios over being paid for content that is moving to the Internet, why shouldn’t the Writers Guild of America put up some choice user-generated content on the Web? United Hollywood is a nifty Web site chronicling the strike in a blog and video, and it also has a page on [...]

Hollywood Hoo-Ha, Part 2,478

Kara Swisher in News on November 8, 2007 at 12:01 am PT

What, oh what, can we say about the latest inane quote from yet another Hollywood mogul about Apple’s Steve Jobs and his hugely popular iTunes and iPod products. The latest piece of hoo-ha comes from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner (pictured below), pointing a finger at Apple as the real villain in the ongoing strike [...]

Eisner Tapped for Villain Role in Upcoming Pixar Film

John Paczkowski in News on November 7, 2007 at 5:14 pm PT

The Writers Guild of America has got it all wrong. The architect of its financial mistreatment in the entertainment industry isn’t the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Nor is it that lousy DVD deal it agreed to 20 years ago, which gives writers, directors and actors a combined 20 cents for each DVD [...]

Striking Out on Creating an Internet Hit

Kara Swisher in News on November 7, 2007 at 3:23 am PT

So when, if ever, will there be a truly bona fide Internet hit? And please, pretty please, it just can’t be “lonelygirl15″ (pictured below) and some clever music videos. The lack of lasting and profitable professional content online is once again in sharp relief with the writers’ strike now taking place in Hollywood. In a [...]

Filthy Rich, but Froogle …

John Paczkowski in News on November 1, 2007 at 11:00 am PT