Acting Up
Digital Media Law: CANNES, France – Do loose clips sink ships? Apparently the actors think so. Their ongoing union negotiations with the studios are hung up over clip consent – the issue of whether studios can use short excerpts from movies and TV shows without an actor’s permission. In particular, the question is whether actors should have a veto right when the studios make clips available online or via cell phones.
The issue is arcane, like so much that’s recently bedeviled Hollywood labor. Studios say that seeking consent from every actor in every clip is uneconomical, which would mean no clip revenue for either side (although significant digital revenue is years away in any case). It’s a compelling argument.
Actors respond that they want to control their own images and avoid being overexposed, let alone mashed-up and morphed. That also sounds sensible – until you consider the tens of thousands of clips…