AP: European Writers Support US Strike

European Writers Support US Strike

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 28, 2007

LONDON (AP) -- European film and TV writers demonstrated Wednesday in support of their striking U.S. colleagues.

Several dozen writers rallied in front of the headquarters of Britain's main union federation holding red-and-black placards saying: "We Support the Writers Guild of America."

Mark Burton, a British writer whose credits include "Madagascar" and "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," said the issue at stake was "how you pay creative artists in the digital world."

"Producers see an opportunity to seize more territory for themselves," said Burton, a WGA member whose American projects are on hold.

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since Nov. 5, halting production on many TV shows and movies. The main issue: payment for work broadcast on the Internet and mobile phones.

Playwright David Edgar, president of the 2,000-strong Writers' Guild of Great Britain, said that without payment for Internet use, writers' relationship to their work was like ''the widget-maker's relationship to the widget once it is made -- that is, none at all.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Europe-Hollywood-Labor.html