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More than 10 years in the making, an international treaty aimed at protecting actors’ rights is due to be signed in Beijing in the coming week. Backed by UN agency WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the treaty would extend economic and moral protection for film and TV performers. It’s geared more towards actors in emerging markets, or those where collective bargaining is not already in place. In many countries, actors whose work is sold overseas have no legal recourse for payment, nor do they have recourse if work is distorted in a way that could hurt their reputation. Ratification of the Beijing treaty by the 185 member countries would set a clearer international legal framework for those artists.
The treaty is backed by such stars as Meryl Streep, Sonia Braga and Javier Bardem. Bardem recently said, “Remuneration for the rights as an actor are very crucial. Not for people like me, but for that 90% of people that really have a serious problem making a living from w
hat they are doing.” The treaty is designed in part to take a stance against piracy. In a recorded video message at the opening of the Beijing conference today, Streep said, “This is a pivotal time in the performers’ battle for intellectual property protection. While digital technology creates a wealth of new opportunities for performers, it also significantly increases the risk of performers losing control over their very own work product… In the same way that writers and composers depend upon royalty income for their survival in the long term, performers around the world must benefit, as well, from income from the exploitation of their work.”
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what a complete crock of shit. Intellectual Property Rights for Actors? Is anyone ready to have a serious conversation? I work in post-production as a re-recording mixer. I get no residuals. I get paid up-front. my work is half of the final product of the picture. If you don’t think sound is important to an actors work or the final product, turn off the sound and hire an organ player. This whole smokescreen of residuals and talk about those who take “risks” by appearing or writing a film or television episode is complete crap. I take a huge risk every single time I sign on to work on a film or television show, because that show could be cancelled at any time and then i’m out of work.
As far as what Javier Bardem had to say about struggling actors…garbage. If you aren’t making a living doing what you do, then you do what most people do–you find a new job. Imagine if we all sat around saying that “I don’t make enough money in this line of work, so on top of my salary, you should send me an additional check every month for work that I did years ago because of the “risk” I’m taking by staying underemployed” LOL
Actors have a union. The actor’s through their union acting as their collective bargaining agent, negotiated with the producers for contract that paid residuals.
The producers that wanted to hire “union actors” agreed to pay actors residuals. If the producers don’t like the terms that go along with hiring union actors, they should hire non-union actors.
The mixers I know are in IATSE. They get paid residuals. Their residuals go to there health and pension plan. Did you not know that you get paid residual too? Your not that dumb are you? Or are you just a non-union mixer?
So, you are in… mixing? Yes, that’s why audiences come to see the movies – they say “you know musicmix worked on this film, we should see it. I think he’s great.”
I mean, seriously, all due respect…
No, they don’t say that. They say “Meryl Streep is in it.” Or, they say “Woody Allen directed and wrote it.” Or they say, “Ridley Scott directed it, and I don’t really know much about the actors, but it’s a prequel to ‘Alien.’ ”
Please. You work fairly often as a mixer? Try being an actor. You’re “out of work?”
Try being an actor.
WE make the product, in a way that draws audiences – the big, domestic and international audiences that spend money, not you my friend. Do you contribute? Absolutely. Do you deserve the same residual rights as the people who put asses in the seats?
Of course not. That is product people revisit because WE MADE IT. As in – director, writer, and especially, ACTORS.
That “re-use” of OUR work makes a further profit for producers, who LIKE to think “they” are “creators of content” and have codified those words in many of these foreign agreements. Seriously. Did you know that Ms. Streep? The producer “creates the product,” (according to these foreign agreements) not you, you silly actor person. How naive.
So, ideally, ANY “revisiting” or “re-use” of ACTORS work? WE GET OUR SHARE OF THE PROFIT, via a “residual,” that keeps us able to pay our bills, and, hopefully, stay in the profession of our choice that we’ve spent YEARS training for, sleeping on people’s couches until we got a break, then working, working, working, via auditioning, on our own dime, to get that elusive job, once every, oh, 30 auditions – if we are lucky.
Residuals keep us alive between jobs – you know, the ones you have to beat out 50 other guys to get? EVERY SINGLE TIME?
You know who gets “offers?”
Meryl Streep. And about… 20 other actors. TOPS. THAT’S IT.
EVERYBODY ELSE, and I mean EVERYBODY ELSE?
AUDITIONS. Then, they VERY often give the job to a “name,” they had an offer out to anyway, and you understand you were probably wasting your time. Bitter? No, just experienced. Actually, happy as a clam, because I’ve done quite well comparatively, but deeply saddened as I watched our union, SAG, destroyed.
SAG-AFTRA now, due to “merger.” Now? All bets are off, ironically, due largely to the misinformed A-list stars, such as Meryl Streep.
What is ironic about this article is Meryl Streep was one of the leading proponents of merger. She clearly was rather misinformed in thinking being a part of dismantling SAG, in favor of merging into essentially, AFTRA, was not going to be good for actors in a variety of ways, one being protecting their lifeblood – residuals.
Now, she’s making speeches about foreign treaties, and getting tough – while SHE is self-insured, and has a “pension” no matter what happens to the pensions of 99% of actors who suffer greatly if the merger screws their health care and pensions, which is entriely possible.
She is worth many millions of dollars. She earned it. She is a brilliant actor.
And yet…
The simple fact is there IS no NEW Health and Pension program, post merger.
There are still 2 plans (SAG and AFTRA) and unless the trustees of the SAG plan and the AFTRA plan decide to create a third plan, ( anywhere from 2 to 5 years down the line – if ever) and they do NOT HAVE TO, because their legal mandate is not to do anything that hurts THE PLAN, NOT “what is in the best interest of the membership,” – earnings will continue to be split between both plans, and thousands of actors will continue to fall off the heath rolls because they don’t make enough in either plan to qualify for either plan.
Which was one of the main reasons for merger. Hello? TO CUT HEALTH CARE COSTS.
They will continue to not qualify for pensions, because the good pension plan, SAG’s, was decimated by the merger, and now, since Ken Howard and Ned Vaughn and David White and Duncan Crabtree Ireland gave most TV to AFTRA, thus “creating” split earnings, only to then pop up and offer a solution – “merger!” – actors will continue to be deprieved of health care they would have qualified easily for 5 years ago, or less.
Pensions? Are up in the air. If either plan goes bankrupt, certainly a possibility, given the chaos created by merger, the federal government, despite the propaganda rammed home in their “CONTROL THE MESSAGE” run up to merger, by the SAG merger-zombies and AFTRA, the ACTUAL “federal insurance on your actor’s pension” will be, wait for it… 13 cents on the dollar.
That’s right. ERISA, the Federal Pension Oversight group? That’s it. Your pension plan goes into the red? You get 13 cents on the dollar for your pension, so, if this merger causes further problems for the plans, and there are lawsuits by top, former SAG P&H insider, and whistle-blower, Craig Simmons pending, alleging the SAG plan is NOT funded fully, not even close, and therefore it may NOT necessarily be “federally insured.”
Actors like Meryl Streep, who did not know their SAG/AFTRA history, or any real specifics of merger, are self-insured, so, none of this matters to them. Hence, they traipse off, all expenses paid, to conferences like this, and spout fountains of bullshit, when they could have TRULY protected actors, SAG actors: rights, wages and working conditions, pension and health plans, and the recovery of 20 years of STOLEN (yup, soon to be brought to court) foreign royalties by the MPAA, via sneaky lawyer tricks by people like Bob Bush (MPAA counsel), as well as the 99% of actors who live or die based on residuals, by STANDING UP FOR THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD, instead of advocating merger, which literlly destroyed SAG and has put rank and file actors in a FAR weaker position.
Why? Because we merged into an AFTRA-centric mess, led by a non-actor, Roberta Reardon, former AFTRA president, who has a traceable history of caving to producer demands in every negotiation she’s ever been a part of.
We have NO DEAL in “new media” which Ms. Streep rightly cites as the future of content delivery for actors. Did she know that? NO DEAL.
Well, we DO have a “deal” – and this is why the merger happened, because the previous administration of SAG, led by a UNIONIST, Alan Rosenberg, would NOT sign this “offer” by the
A MPTP for New Media:
“No minimums and free windows leading to the end of residuals.”
That was the FIRST offer. That was the LAST offer, after the merger-zombies swarmed SAG headquarters, fired Doug Allen, former NED, and legally muzzled Alan Rosenberg, twice democratically-elected President of SAG, in an UNPRECEDENTED action in SAG history, from ever speaking on behalf of the union he was democratically elected to speak for, twice, ever again.
Did Meryl Streep know that was what was at stake, when she was speaking out AGAINST Alan Rosenberg, and touting the new SAG regime, UFS, that then gave all SAG TV to AFTRA, thus CREATING “split earnings,” then citing “split earnings” as the principal reason to merge? Did she understand that would lead to merger, and the regime we have in place NOW, SAG-AFTRA, led by producer-compliant merger-zombies?
No, she didn’t. Why? Because she had literally no idea what she was talking about, then or now. Shame. I’m sure the first class flight and the hotel and the other perqs were first rate Meryl. Enjoy.
Clearly, you people with a lot to say have completely missed my point. Residuals are bogus. don’t tell me that because I’m earning a pension that that is a “residual”. I don’t get paid over and over, each time my work is shown on television or sold on DVD. Actors also earn a pension. so is that “double-dipping” then?
You are full of crap.
If you were in IATSE, you received residuals. You may consider them bogus but you wouldn’t have a very good IATSE pension plan without those residuals.
You say you had a career as a sound technician and worked your way up to mixer, you are now retired and never knew you received residuals? Your ignorance is stunning.
I am NOT talking about your retirement. I’m talking about what funded your retirement. RESIDUALS.
I repeat RESIDUALS. Your union IATSE, just like SAG, negotiated for contracts that paid residuals. So if you worked on IATSE covered motion pictures or TV shows you WERE paid residuals.
Call up IATSE local 695 or your pension plan and ask. The only difference between IATSE residuals and SAG residuals is that actors receive a check in the mail. IATSE members residuals go into their Health and Pension Plans.
“Actors have a union.” You got that right.
Treaties, per se are nothing. These Actors must be reading from some irrational script. A lot of treaties between nations are not always enforced or followed. Let alone for Work.
“extend economic and moral protection for film and TV performers.”
Oh please. China, a place where they hijack your intellectual property and they don’t even bother to say Thank you.
The UN has no business in this particular business.
@ Actor. clearly, you are mixed up. A) I am NOT retired, B) I work full time and C) you have confused Motion Picture Health benefits and my pension (when I’m 62–which will pay a grand sum of $1600/mth) with your “above the line” ability to collect your health benefits, your pension AND walk out to your mailbox every month and get an ADDITIONAL check for work that you did years ago. That check is called a RESIDUAL. health and pension are NOT residuals. you are confused.
@Matt Mulhearn so you’re saying that consumers must pay for the same DVD or CD the already watched or listened to watch or listen it again? Let me give it to you straight.
Producers and big movie companies get all the money but leave actors none. And China, who signed this treaty are the ones who are bootlegging DVDs of your movies. Have you seen the poor quality they made?
I don’t sneak a camcorder into a movie theater or use P2P. I have a big problem like all you actors with people cropping celebrities heads with Photoshop and put them on adult sites. I pay good money for your movies, but nobody can’t afford your movies.
Those so claims from media of every actor or singer gets billions of dollars for an upcoming movie or a hit album is a lie. Record and movie companies get all the money and don’t leave you and the actors any. They keep the money all to themselves. You sign a contract for a movie or a song, they claim to pay you billions, but again keep it all to themselves. Hook line and sinker.