So, the sticking point in the Hollywood writers’ strike is the issue of online downloads of television and movie content. The writers want to be compensated for online downloads of programs they’ve contributed to.

The Hollywood executives have said that it’s impossible to compensate writers based on each download and doing so will limit their ability to stay innovative online.

This situation is doomed unless both sides look beyond actual downloads. Why? Because one download doesn’t equate to one person.

Let’s illustrate this point from the world of podcasting. One person, let’s call her Sandy, could download a podcast episode 5 times because:

• Sandy lost Internet connection the first time she tried to download the episode on her home computer.
• She attempted to download it a second time on her home computer, but it was interrupted when Sandy received a Skype call from her brother who’s in Hong Kong.
• Sandy downloaded it a third time after she got off Skype with her brother and this time, she was successful.
• The next morning, Sandy arrives at work and downloads the episode on her laptop while waiting for a meeting to start.
• After a few busy days, Sandy downloads the episode to her home computer forgetting she did this 5-days earlier.

As you can see with the example of Sandy, a 1-to-1 measurement between a download and an individual person isn’t always true. So yes, Hollywood executives are right in stating that they could go bankrupt trying to come up with a compensation package for this model.

I’m thinking about what Hollywood writers should ask for instead, but my pistons are fried right now after doing something I hate practically all day (which is writing). So, I’ll mull over this in the morning and post my suggestion in the next couple of days.

Bullets excerpted from Podcasting for Profit / Photo source Evatt Foundation