Thursday, November 8, 2007

Battlestar Galactica strikes again

The makes of Battlestar Galactica are merciless in their pursuit of the studio/networks menace. In our last episode, Jane Espenson, (Co-Executive Producer of BSG) led a crack team into action. Now, the man himself, BSG co-creator and producer Ron Moore is in on the action. Moore's one of the most Internet-savvy producers in Hollywood, being one of the first to podcast and webisode (is that a verb?).

He said to IGN regarding his negotiations to allow webisodes:
We got in this long, protracted thing and eventually they agreed to pay everybody involved. But then, as we got deeper into it, they said "But we're not going to put any credits on it. You're not going to be credited for this work. And we can use it later, in any fashion that we want." At which point I said "Well, then we're done and I'm not going to deliver the webisodes to you." And they came and they took them out of the editing room anyway -- which they have every right to do. They own the material -- But it was that experience that really showed me that that's what this is all about. If there's not an agreement with the studios about the internet, that specifically says "This is covered material, you have to pay us a formula - whatever that formula turns out to be - for use of the material and how it's all done," the studios will simply rape and pillage.

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