TFI's Meeting on Arts Cuts

Theatre Forum Ireland has issued a press release about its meeting yesterday to discuss the cuts in funding to Irish arts organisations by the Arts Council (announced on February 1st).

On Wednesday 10 February Theatre Forum, the representative body for the performing arts in Ireland, held a meeting in the National Concert Hall to discuss the severe cut backs in funding recently announced by the Arts Council.

Over 120 arts organisations from across the country were represented at the packed meeting.

Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council, was invited to address a number of issues raised by the sector in the aftermath of the cuts.

In December, the Arts Council received a €9 million reduction in funding from the Government. More than 300 organisations subsequently had their grant cut, some by up to 65%. A further 30 had their funding cut all together.

Theatre Forum acknowledges that, whilst in the current difficult economic climate and reduced public spending, the arts will inevitably be affected, the severity of the cuts took many by surprise.

In the run up to the meeting, there was confusion in the sector regarding the rationale behind the cuts. Mary Cloake sought to address this and other concerns and was urged by many speakers to publish the official Arts Council theatre policy as a matter of urgency, and to bring forward deadlines for proposed alternative production funding schemes.

Theatre Forum chairman Fergal McGrath urged members of Theatre Forum and the Arts Council to work together to protect the performing arts for the benefit of Irish audiences - and the economy.

The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment to the National Campaign for the Arts.

Pay Membership Online

Membership to the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild runs from January - December, which means that member fees are due in the coming weeks.

To make the process easier members can now renew their membership online using PayPal.

Our thanks to members who pay their fees on time. The work we do on your behalf would not be possible otherwise!

10 Arguments for the Arts

Those of us looking to construct an argument about the relevancy of the Arts to society would be well advised to notice that the Council of Europe recognises this vital connection, and funds an organisation, Culture Watch Europe (CWE), whose remit is "the presentation and exchange of information and good practice in the broad sectors of culture and cultural and natural heritage. Based on the Organisation's fundamental principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, CWE offers an innovative and evidence-based understanding of cultural and heritage developments in Europe."

It offers a document called "Culture: A Tool For Reversing Recession: Ten Arguments For Use By Ministers".

This paper sets out ten arguments that Ministers of Culture can use in discussions with their colleagues – especially Finance and Prime ministers – when annual budgets come under scrutiny. It suggests reasons why cultural investment can be an important tool in combating the effects of recession and – perhaps more importantly – leading the way back to prosperity. The arguments also help Ministers of Culture make common cause with those responsible for employment generation, social cohesion, security and education. Every country will have its own examples and statistics to back up the arguments. Similarly each can develop new proposals based on them for restructuring and regeneration. The arguments are as useful at the intergovernmental, regional and local levels as they are at the national. Indeed they can be part of any municipality’saction plan.

I think it's wonderful for the EU to offer us this coherent strategy for combating budget cuts in relation to culture. If European ministers can use these arguments, so can you!

First World Conference of Screenwriters

The first World Conference of Screenwriters will take place in Athens, Greece during the 6 & 7 of November 2009.

The Conference will bring together all of the member Guilds and Unions of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe – who initiated the project – and the members of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds.

Two hundred representatives from 30 guilds around the globe are expected to attend the meeting: they will be representing over twenty thousand writers worldwide.

During the two days of the conference the delegates will focus on the following topics:

• The environment for production
• Distribution of creative content
• The role of multinational conglomerates
• The writers' response.

Additionally a number of debates on related topics will take place over the course of the conference.

Among those already committed to be present will be Guillermo Arriaga (Golden Lion for the Burning Plain, Golden Palm for Best Screenplay for Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for Babel, as well as several awards for 21 Grams, Amores Perros), Mateo Gil (Oscar for Mar Adentro and several awards for Abro los ojos, Vanilla Sky, Agora), Vincenzo Cerami (Oscar for La Vita e Bella and several awards for Porte Aperte a.o.), Marcos Bernstein (Golden Bear and Golden Globe for Central do Brasil), Milcho Manchevski (Golden Lion for Before the Rain and several awards for Dust and Shadows), Paolo Sorrentino (Jury Prize in Cannes for Il Divo), Sergio Sanchez (Goya for Best Original Screenplay for The Orphanage), Stefano Rulli (several awards for La Meglio Gioventu, Mio fratello e figlio unico a.o.), Guy Hibbert (Sundance Screenwriting Award 2009 for Five Minutes of Heaven), Razvan Radulescu (several awards for The Paper Will Be Blue and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), Mark O'Halloran (several awards for Adam and Paul and Garage), Srdjan Koljevic (several awards for The Trap and Red Colored Grey Truck).

Countries represented include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States of America.

The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild will be sending delegates to this historic conference, to participate and discuss the important issues that face screenwriters around the world.

NWU Against Google Deal

Wired reports that the National Writers Union -- which represents 1,500 freelance writers -- has officially come out in opposition to the Google Book Settlement.

The union, which helps freelance writers recover money from publications that don’t pay as promised, has not yet decided whether to file a friend-of-the-court brief or talk to the U.S. Justice Department, according to Tom Gradel, a member of the union’s Chicago steering committee. It decided to oppose the deal after days of discussion and a vote at its recent biennial convention.

Cork Guild Meeting

The first meeting for all members of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild who live in or about Cork will take place at the Cork Film Centre on Thursday 30th July at 6.30pm.

There will be an open agenda, but to give the meeting some structure, David Kavanagh, CEO of the Guild, will present the 2nd Annual ZeBBies Report.

The report covers the period July 2007 to June 2008, and will provide detailed information on the amount of work which was available to writers, the number of writers who developed projects and produced work, and the rates of pay involved therein.

Members are welcome to invite fellow writers, be they Guild members - or mere mortals - for a sober discussion and (if we're very lucky) a non-sober drink.

We need a minimum number of members to hold this meeting, so please RSVP your attendance to: info[at]script[dot]ie.

Change of Venue

The location of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild's events on Thursday 9th July during the Galway Film Fleadh have been changed to the Entertainment Centre at the Radisson Hotel, Galway.

Both the 10.30am presentation of the 2nd Annual ZeBBies Report, and the noon discussion with Irish Equity in relation to on-going problems with contracts, will take place at the Radisson Hotel.

We apologise for the late change of venue, but feel the new location will better facilitate the event and our members.

Irish Arts Workers Unite

Theatre Forum is encouraging people to set up a Facebook page for every constituency in Ireland in demonstrate to councillors and TDs just how many arts workers live and vote in every constituency in Ireland.

There are now 26 constituency pages with over 1,000 members listed. If you're on Facebook check out the list on the Theatre Forum web site and join the appropriate group.

Guild Events at Fleadh

During the Galway Film Fleadh the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild will be involved in two events:

At 10.30am on Thursday 9th July at the Radisson Hotel the Guild will present the 2nd Annual ZeBBies Report.

The report, which covers the period July 2007 to June 2008, will provide detailed information on the amount of work which was available to writers, the number of writers who developed projects and produced work, and the rates of pay involved therein. This meeting is open to all.

Immediately following, at 12.00pm at the Radisson Hotel, Irish Equity in conjunction with The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild, will hold a meeting for actors and writers in relation to on-going problems with contracts.

This meeting will be of special interest to actors and writers working in the industry, but all are welcome to attend.

Google Antitrust Investigation

Last week The New York Times reported that the Justice Department in the USA has issued formal request for information from Google, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild and individual publishers in relation to an antitrust investigation of the Google Book Settlement.

Critics said that the settlement would unfairly grant Google a monopoly over the commercialization of millions of books.

The Justice Department's requests do not necessarily mean that the government will oppose the settlement. But the department's investigation could delay any approval of the settlement, antitrust specialists said.

“The government must be a lot further along with this than people thought,” said Gary Reback, a lawyer who wrote a book on antitrust. “Now, there is a big boulder sitting on the judge's desk. It is hard to see the judge approving this if a government investigation is pending.”

Judge Denny Chin of Federal District Court in Manhattan, who is overseeing the settlement, is to hold a hearing in September.

Human Rights Film School Competition

The Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin, will hold a Gala Screening on Thursday, 11 June of the ICCL (Irish Council for Civil Liberties), Human Rights Film School Competition. Both amateur and professional Irish filmmakers, directors, producers, and scriptwriters created short films for the competition to raise awareness about human rights.

A short-list of six films have been selected:

• Pirogues by Barry O'Donoghue (Producer)
• Team Spirit by Siobhan Twomey (Writer, Director)
• My Identity by Vittoria Colonna (Director)
• A Life Inside the Frame by Daniel Bevan (Co-writer, Co-director).
• 8 Things to Remember by Aoibheann O'Sullivan (Director)
• Children of Manila by Genny Carraro (Producer)

People can watch the shortlisted films on the Human Rights Film School Competition web site, and can vote for their favourite film here.

The winner of the Human Rights Film School will receive a place in the prestigious 2009 Summer School on Cinema and Human Rights at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) in Venice, which offers master classes and lectures given by renowned experts in the disciplines of film and human rights.

The Summer School is a 3 week crash course on filmmaking for social change, which runs alongside the Venice Film Festival from 27 August to 16 September. The course seeks to address the question "how can film be used as an instrument for enhancing human rights awareness?" This will involve a programme of interactive teaching, private screenings, workshops and modules on cinema and human rights, along with attendance at screenings at the Venice Film Festival, meetings and discussions with filmmakers and others from the film world attending the festival.

The School is led by award-winning documentary maker Nick Danziger.

Google Settlement Seminar

CLÉ is offering an information seminar on the Google Book Settlement Deal on Friday 29th May at 2pm in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

How many hours have you now spent trying to figure out the Google Settlement? Opt in? Opt out? Feel informed enough to make the decision? Informed enough to advise your authors? Informed enough to answer their questions?

This is the kind of issue where talking with each other and listening to experts can save you oodles of time and brain power! Dedicate the afternoon of 29th May to sorting this baby out!

Sam Holman, ICLA, Olga Martin Sancho, FEP, and Fergal Tobin, Gill & Macmillan, Vice-President FEP and CLÉ representative to FEP and IPA, will discuss the important aspects of the settlement and consider the various decisions available to Irish publishers and stakeholders and their consequences. The floor will also be open to questions and discussion.

This event is open to all but registration is compulsory, please RSVP to Brendan at info@publishingireland.com

SAMANTHA HOLMAN is the CEO of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency which represents authors' and publishers' rights in relation to reprography. Samantha is also on two national voluntary boards, the Copyright Association of Ireland and the Irish Visual Artists' Rights Organisation.

OLGA MARTIN SANCHO is a qualified lawyer and is currently working as the legal advisor of the Federation of European Publishers, focusing particularly on EU copyright issues. Her main areas of expertise are Protection of Intellectual and Industrial Property in the EU and in the WIPO, Competition Law, and European and German Media Law.

FERGAL TOBIN (CHAIR) is Vice President of the Federation of European Publishers. Fergal has been the Publishing Director of Gill & Macmillan since 1995 and has published, among many books, the monumental Encyclopaedia of Ireland. Fergal also served as President of CLÉ from 2002 to 2004.

AGM Venue Change

The 7th Annual General Meeting of the Irish Playwrights' and Screenwriters' Guild will take place on Saturday, June 6th at 2.30 pm.

There has been a change of venue: the AGM will take place at The Morgan Hotel 10 Fleet Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

Nominations to vacant places on the Board of Directors, proposed by a member entitled to attend the AGM, together with a note of consent to be so nominated from the nominee, should reach the Company Secretary at Art House, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 no later than 5.00pm on the 5th June, 2009.

All members of the Guild should have received the relevant documents in the post, including proxy vote forms if they are unable to attend the AGM.

Agenda

1. Minutes of the sixth Annual General Meeting of June 2008
2. Report of the Chairperson of the Board of Directors (including the 2nd ZeBBies report)
3. Accounts for 2008
4. Budget for this year
5. Writing and the Economic Crisis
6. Other Activities for this year
7. Appointment of the auditors and fixing of their remuneration
8. Election of members of the Board
9. Any Other Business

We encourage all members to attend the AGM, get involved in your Guild, and meet your fellow colleagues and industry professionals.

Guild AGM

The 7th Annual General Meeting of the Irish Playwrights' and Screenwriters' Guild will take place on Saturday, June 6th at 2.30 pm.

There has been a change of venue: the AGM will take place at The Morgan Hotel 10 Fleet Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

Nominations to vacant places on the Board of Directors, proposed by a member entitled to attend the AGM, together with a note of consent to be so nominated from the nominee, should reach the Company Secretary at Art House, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 no later than 5.00pm on the 5th June, 2009.

Members of the Guild will receive all the relevant documents in the coming days, including proxy vote forms if they are unable to attend the AGM.

Agenda

1. Minutes of the sixth Annual General Meeting of June 2008
2. Report of the Chairperson of the Board of Directors (including the 2nd ZeBBies report)
3. Accounts for 2008
4. Budget for this year
5. Writing and the Economic Crisis
6. Other Activities for this year
7. Appointment of the auditors and fixing of their remuneration
8. Election of members of the Board
9. Any Other Business

We encourage all members to attend the AGM, get involved in your Guild, and meet your fellow colleagues and industry professionals.

Gender Conference in UK

The Stage reports that the Sphinx Theatre Company in London is hosting a conference entitled "Vamps, Vixens and Feminists - The Elephant in the Room" to debate issues around the employment and representation of women in theatre, film and television.

It's funded by the Arts Council England, and is being organised in collaboration with industry bodies, including Equity and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

Sue Parrish, artistic director of Sphinx, said the introduction of the Gender Equality Duty in 2007 - which states that public bodies must take steps to pro-actively promote equality between women and men - had presented an “opportunity to raise these issues and be heard”.

She said two years since the directive came into force, ACE was still in the process of implementing the Gender Equality Duty, and added: "The event seemed like a wonderful opportunity for professionals from different parts of the industry to get together and really discuss what is going on and what might be done."

The conference will feature contributors such as playwright Tanika Gupta and Katherine Rake - the chief executive of gender equality campaigning body the Fawcett Society.

Parrish said that she had deliberately avoided inviting political figures, including Equality and Human Rights Commission chair Trevor Phillips, because she did not want to hear "a lot of empty rhetoric from politicians who are having to make a fairly bland statement".

The conference will be made up of a number of panels, including one that will address cultural and historical female stereotypes, led by Manchester University professor Vivien Gardner. Other panels will focus on writers, with contributions from Writers’ Guild president David Edgar and screenwriter Tracy Brabin, and actresses, led by Kate Buffery, who has been at the forefront of an Equity campaign to address the inequalities faced by older female performers.

The conference will take place in the Olivier Theatre at the National on Tuesday, June 16 from 10am until 1.30pm. Places are free and can be booked by emailing info@sphinxtheatre.co.uk or by calling 020 7401 9994 by Friday June 5.

From 50 to 70 in 2 Years

Bill Jones, writing on the Copyright and Technology Blog, has a useful summary of the recent decision by the EU parliament to extend the copyright term for music recordings from 50 years to 70 years.

To ensure that performers benefit fully from the additional royalties thanks to the copyright extension, MEPs amended the original text to prevent the use of previous contractual agreements to deduct money from the additional royalties.

Also included in the legislation is a dedicated fund for session musicians. This fund will be financed by contributions from producers, who will be obliged to set aside at least 20% of the revenues gained from the proposed extension of copyright term. The fund will reward session musicians who gave up their rights when signing the contract for their performance. Collecting societies, which represent performers' and producers' interests, will retain the right to administer the annual supplementary remuneration.

Member States will have two years to incorporate the new legislation in their respective countries.

The Parliament also asked the Commission to launch an impact assessment of the situation in the European audiovisual sector by January 2010, with a view to deciding whether a similar copyright extension would benefit the audiovisual world.

SAG Closer to Deal

Variety reports that the national board of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has passed its new feature-primetime contract by a slim majority: 53.4% to 46.6%.

Now, the contract must be ratified by its 120,000 guild members. A pitched PR battle is expected between the factions in SAG who support the new deal (headed by interim national exec director David White, and Ned Vaughn, leader of the Unite for Strength faction) and oppose the contract (headed by SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg).

The ballots will be posted out in early May, and must be returned by the end of the month.

The board's approval came two days after SAG execs and the congloms hammered out final details of the pact. SAG toppers announced the tentative deal Friday afternoon, 10 months after the previous pact expired. A key to Friday's tentative deal was the congloms' agreement to SAG's demand for an expiration date in June 2011. That date will keep SAG in sync with the WGA, DGA and AFTRA expirations, which allows solidarity in future negotiations. But SAG won't get any retroactive pay gains -- worth $67 million, according to the companies -- under the new deal.

The proposed SAG deal contains the same general new-media terms as the WGA, DGA and AFTRA pacts, meaning that all the drama from Rosenberg and his team for the past 10 months ends with a whimper, not with a bang.

Both sides agree that the contract battle has left SAG in a weaker position. Rosenberg has complained repeatedly that the lack of unity among board members wound up de-leveraging the guild, while the moderates contend that Doug Allen -- handpicked in 2006 by Rosenberg to be national exec director -- bungled the negotiations.

SAG's deal includes a 3.5% annual hike in minimums --- a 3% salary hike in the first year plus a 0.5% gain in pension and health contributions in the first year and a 3.5% salary increase in the second. And it spells out the pay structure for shows streamed on and made for the Internet. That's the same deal the companies offered on June 30 but was spurned by the hardliners who advocated holding out for sweeter terms.

Vaughn said the 2011 contract termination date -- rather than the 2012 date sought by the congloms -- was key in getting the new deal approved by the moderates on the board. "This deal will put SAG in position to bargain for better new-media terms in the 2011 round of negotiations, since we'll be in synch with the other unions," he added.

SAG Close to Deal

According to a news article on the L.A. Times the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is finally close to negotiating a new three-year contract with Hollywood Producers, the AMPTP, after weeks of intense dialogue.

SAG members have been working without contracts for the past nine months, when their last contact lapsed, and a new one could not be agreed upon by either side.

SAG's interim executive director David White was voted in during a union election late last year, and since then has been meeting one-on-one with the studios to help facilitate a deal.

SAG chief negotiator John McGuire, who just negotiated a new commercials contract for SAG members, is expected to present the outlines of an agreement to the guild's negotiating task force Tuesday, which could set the stage for the return of formal negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the studios but is dominated by heads of the major media companies.

The union's national board could vote on a final contract when it meets April 18.

White and McGuire are under heavy pressure to deliver a contract to the union's 120,000 members. They were recently installed by a moderate majority on the union's board that accused former leaders of mishandling negotiations and pushing SAG toward the brink of a strike.

Google Book Deal

The IPSG would like to bring the Google Book Settlement to the attention of Irish authors.

In 2004 Google began digitising all the books in the University of Michigan library. Shortly afterwards the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and a group of authors and publishers filed a class-action lawsuit for copyright infringement.

In November 2008 those representatives reached an out-of-court settlement with Google that would -- if approved by federal court -- allow Google to publish online out-of-print books for reading, sales, institutional licensing, ad sales, and other publishing exploitations.

The settlement gave the class-action attorneys $30 million, a new governing rights body called the Book Rights Registry (BRR) $35 million, and set aside $45 million for writers infringed up to now. The BRR will act as the agency that will forward payments of 63 per cent of revenue earned by Google to authors for future use of their works. You can read the Authors Guild's statement online about the settlement.

This deal remains subject to a final fairness hearing, which is scheduled for June 11, 2009.

Last month a conference organised by the Kernochan Centre for Law, Media and the Arts discussed the ramifications of the deal, and raised concerns. These issues are never straightforward. Wired has pointed out that the law school is funded in part by Microsoft, one of Google's oldest competitors.

At this point Google has digitised over seven million books, and now has the non-exclusive right to digitise every book published before January 5, 2009. Google will have to negotiate directly with publishers for rights to all works published after January 5th, 2009.

Authors who want their books excluded from the settlement must formally opt-out by May 5, 2009.

Authors who wish to agree to the terms of the settlement must claim every edition of their book(s) associated with their name that has been published in the USA. They will receive an once-off payment of at least $60 per book from Google to cover any infringement of their copyright so far. Further payment for online use of the texts will either be charged as a flat fee, or writers can ask Google to calculate an "optimal price" for their book based on demand.

The Irish Times published a story on the matter last week.

At a recent seminar, Samantha Holman, chief executive of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, was worred that many Irish writers were unaware of the terms of the Google Book Settlement.

Although the settlement was for a class action suit in the US, Holman notes that Google was required to notify copyright groups everywhere in the world, and says the settlement notice warned global copyright holders "to assume that you own a US copyright interest in your book". Holman says authors can probably expect a similar settlement with Google in future in countries and territories outside the US and cautioned authors against assuming the company might find little commercial value in the project.

"Google has been very successful so far, and there's no reason to think they won't be very successful at this," she says.

Holman notes that some Irish writers have even found their doctoral thesis listed on the Google settlement site and so she encourages anyone who has ever written anything to search under their name for any works. The settlement "is not the perfect solution by any means. But it is the solution being proposed," she told authors. "You have to start reading your contracts carefully."

Finally, this week Google announced a deal with Sony that will make 500,000 public domain titles available for download from Google Book Search in a format that is compatible with Sony's ebook Reader.

Reality TV Lawsuit

According to the L.A. Times three former employees of Fremantle Media, which produces hit reality TV shows such as American Idol, have launched a class-action lawsuit against the company.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, the former employees -- a music coordinator for "American Idol," an associate producer for the reality-based TV series "Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" and a producer for the game show "Temptation" -- contend that the London-based company and its various subsidiaries exposed them to sweatshop conditions.

"Employees work ten, twelve and even twenty-hour days, six or seven days a week, without overtime compensation and are forced to forgo meal and rest breaks as required by law," the suit states.

The workers further alleged that Fremantle engaged in a "fraudulent scheme" to conceal the hours they worked, forcing them to falsify their time cards so that they would not be paid overtime.

The Writers Guild of America, East and West, have been campaigning strongly for four years for better rights for writers on reality television shows in the USA. The Guild backed two similar lawsuits that made comparable allegations against reality TV producers and networks, and the suits were settled in January for $4 million.

In February the Guild continued its picket of the popular American Idol reality show.

"'Fremantle is lowering standards for workers all across the entertainment industry," said David N. Weiss, vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West. "American Idol is the top-rated show on television, and the fact that Fremantle does not compensate its writers and other workers fairly is unacceptable."