WGAw Has Unclaimed Money for Writers
September 24th, 2005
The New York Times had an interesting article about writers who have unclaimed money sitting in the Writers Guild West coffers. Lots of famous authors are listed on the site's directory as having unclaimed fees, including Tom Clancy and the late Paul Gallico.
So where did all this money come from? Apparently from so-called "foreign levies," which come from VCR, DVD and Internet technology (unlike in America, people in many foreigh countries pay taxes or assessments on movie rentals and the authors get a cut. As is usual with the Writers Guild, there are lawsuits and disputes. Apparently, some writers claim the Guild is illegally holding the money for writers who aren't union members. The Guild says it hasn't done anything wrong, it simply couldn't find these people and so listed them in a database. Which is strange.
So where did all this money come from? Apparently from so-called "foreign levies," which come from VCR, DVD and Internet technology (unlike in America, people in many foreigh countries pay taxes or assessments on movie rentals and the authors get a cut. As is usual with the Writers Guild, there are lawsuits and disputes. Apparently, some writers claim the Guild is illegally holding the money for writers who aren't union members. The Guild says it hasn't done anything wrong, it simply couldn't find these people and so listed them in a database. Which is strange.
According to guild officials, about $6 million had been classified as undeliverable as of April, and as much as 40 percent of an additional $18 million then held in trust was expected to eventually fall into that category. How that unclaimed treasure piled up at the Writers Guild - and whether the guild is doing enough to find the rightful owners, many of whom are not members - has become the latest controversy roiling a Hollywood union that in the last two years has weathered strife over its screen credits arbitration process and the resignations of two presidents under pressure.Writer-director William Richert, whose credits include "A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon" and "The Man in the Iron Mask," filed suit against the guild in Superior Court in Los Angeles, seeking class-action status and contending, among other things, that the union had fraudulently collected and kept money intended for others.
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