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some sixteen years ago, when netflix was a dvd by mail rental service and the closest thing you could get to an iphone was a "video ipod" apple started their itunes tv store with two titles, "lost" and "desperate housewives"...
those of us who worked on "lost" at the time were surprised and angered by this move, since we had not been told, and there was no model for how we would be compensated (the writers guild would go on strike about just that not long thereafter)...
but the lesson was and should always be clear: profit driven enterprises never ask permission. if they ask forgiveness, i have yet to see it. they claim victimhood and financial hardship after the fact and then nickel and dime the subsequent negotiation with pentecostal zeal.
watching all these a-list directors get upset over the streaming/theatrical kefuffle reminds me of that time - i feel for them, but mostly i hope their union is strong and willing to go to war in a way they never have before.
our business (and most others) is based on "relationships" and that's true for most boots-on-the ground interactions, but let's not kid ourselves, milton friedman spoke the corporate evangel decades ago: "the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits."
the "friedman doctrine" is - today - a more important law in how we are governed than "thou shalt not kill". it has been so for a long time - nowhere in there is there a caveat about meaningless shit like "artistic freedom" or "saving lives in a pandemic".
we ignore this truth - or believe it to be less of a driver of EVERYTHING than it truly is - at our own peril.
i love my business, and i have met some amazing people - writers, directors, and yes, many, many executives who truly care about art and expression and originality and supporting talent - but once it's in the hands of "corporate" we are ALL creators of profit or expendable.
