• ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Writers aren’t car salesmen. Writers create the foundation of the show. They’re more similar to the engineers who design cars.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      … who also don’t get paid based on how long or how much the car is driven.

    • Overzeetop@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. Now, how much are the engineers who worked on the design of all of the 2008 Ford Focus are getting paid quarterly based on the number of miles driven in 2008 Ford Focuses in 2022?

        • Overzeetop@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Doesn’t matter how many times it’s sold or how many miles it’s driven - the engineers never see another dime. The only people who get money along the way are providing gasoline, parts, or repairs.

          • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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            1 year ago

            It does matter how many times it’s being sold because unlike a car, which incurs material and labor costs to produce copies of, studios incur near zero cost when selling/reselling licensing rights to new companies, companies who have to pay these studios based on how many times their product is viewed.

            If they don’t want to split their hefty profits with the people who produced their product for them, I guess they can try to produce the product without them and see how that goes.

            • Overzeetop@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              The point is that the designer gets paid once, at the time if design, and the car companies make as many copies as they want without paying an additional penny. Anyone who buys a car never pays an extra penny to the designers no matter hire many times they use the car (analogous to watching a movie or show multiple times).

              But let’s take you’re argument- that it costs money to make a copy. All modern cars are filled with software - entertainment, operations, video processing, communications, autopilot. Afaik, no programmers at Ford are getting residuals for the number of times their startup menu plays, or the fuel injectors modulate for a different mix of fuel.

              The crux is how these creators get paid - as a fee, or with a speculative, contractually-agreed rate. We’re somehow appalled when one field doesn’t get residuals they want, but other fields never get them at all.