For most people the greatest impact of the strike action taken by the Writers Guild of America will be seen in the stuff they don’t get to see. The autumn TV schedule is going to be cancelled or more appropriately, reprogrammed. Viewers won’t see the next installments of Lost or 24 because once any pre-written scripts are shot; nobody is going to be around to write continuations. At 12:01 Monday morning, over 12,000 professional writers walked off the job demanding a greater cut from the distribution of their work through the digital media.

The economics of the issue are fairly easy to understand but very difficult to settle. Writers need to be paid for their work but remuneration structures negotiated nearly 20 years ago do not properly cover the Internet which is quickly becoming the dominant means of distribution.

The writers want a larger cut of revenues derived from new media sources. The production studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, are said to be digging in their heels over royalties paid for productions made primarily for new media and over fees paid for promotional products (like free movies or TV shows) delivered via the Internet.

The way this issue plays out will have a long lasting impact on the evolution of the Internet as an entertainment distribution device. As it stands today, episodes of TV shows and in some cases, full length movies can be downloaded directly from the websites of the studios without the writers receiving any compensation for distribution of their work.

The stakes are huge on both sides but it is apparent that neither fully understands the scope of the issues at stake. The digital media is still in its infancy and it is at this time truly impossible to predict how the future of digital media will unfold. What is certain is that the settlement of this strike will impact all professional writers long into the future. As quoted in the New York Times,

“I can barely switch on a computer, but we all know what is at stake here”, said Amy Sherman-Palladino, a writer who is working on a “Jezebel James,” her new Fox series with Parker Posey, and was the co-creator of “Gilmore Girls.” “We are taking a stand for the next 20 years, and what we do now is going to define the new business model going forward.”