Los Angeles - The Writers Guild of America (WGA) on Thursday announced that it has filed for arbitration today against movie and TV producers for failing to pay residuals for writers' work that is reused on new media -- one of the sticking points in a deal that ended the writers' 100-day strike earlier this year.

The WGA alleges that the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is only paying residuals on downloads of movies and TV shows produced after Feb. 13, 2008, rather than a date of post-1971 for films and post-1977 for TV shows that was part of their contract. T

he WGA also says that AMPTP is failing to pay residuals for streaming TV shows that stay on websites longer than the 17-day initial promotional window stipulated in the contract.

"This triggers the payment of a residual, but so far we've seen nothing," said David Young, executive director of the WGAW.

"Given the reports by the conglomerates of the growth of the number of shows being streamed and increases in new media revenues, this is an unacceptable situation."

Related Links:
http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=3384