As Residuals Fizzle

Someone asked J. Michael Straczynski if he was getting any financial benefit from the repurposing of Babylon 5 as DVDs, iTunes files, and so on. His answer:

Not a gripe, just an answer…as writer, creator and EP I have never
received anything from the DVD sales, Itunes, AOL, bittorrent,
soundtracks or any other form of video distribution on B5.

This is one of the reasons why there’s almost certainly going to be a
writer’s strike this year.

I’ve seen John Rogers at Kung Fu Monkey express similar sentiments. And I can’t say I blame any writer for thinking this way. The economics of entertainment has a lot of catching up to do.

Author: Dave Thomer

Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.