According to multiple sources familiar with the state of the negotiations, entertainment companies are seeking to pay for scans, but not their use or re-use.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/4F4YF

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is seeking to secure AI scans for Schedule F performers — guild members who earn more than the minimum for series regulars ($32,000 per TV episode) and feature films ($60,000). The companies’ suggested clause would require studios and streamers to pay to scan the likeness of Schedule F performers. SAG-AFTRA is seeking to attach a compensation for the re-use of AI scans as AMPTP member companies would also need to secure consent from the performer. The language currently in the AMPTP’s offer would see the studios and streamers secure the right to use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA.

“This is one of the biggest reasons SAG did not accept the ‘last, best and final’ offer from the AMPTP. We could not allow that language to stand,” says one union-side source. “This is massive. Every A-, B-, C-, D- and E-lister — all the higher-paid performers — who think this is a minimum wage strike, they must know they are in this fight. They have to realize that this is about protecting them. This is their strike now when they realize what’s on the line. The people who launched the campaign to take a deal — they’d be f—ked if we took this deal with that in there.”

“They can’t have that loophole to exploit performers. … [The Schedule F AI language in the AMPTP’s proposal] behooves them to have you dead in that they need consent when you’re alive but not when you’re dead.”

On Monday afternoon the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee told union members that it had responded to the AMPTP’s latest offer. “Please know every member of our TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee is determined to secure the right deal and thereby bring this strike to an end responsibly,” the group stated. “There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI. We will keep you informed as events unfold.”

  • UrLogicFails@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    Something that struck me as odd a couple of weeks ago was how much more unified the WGA had seemed against the AMPTP than SAG seemed. It was pointed out to me that there is probably a lot less stratification in the WGA than in SAG, since there are much fewer (if any) A-list writers compared to A-list actors.

    I hope that the AMPTP’s bad faith and dangerous claims to the use of AI will help fuel SAG solidarity when everyone acknowledges clauses like this will hurt everyone regardless of stature.