The Writers’ Guild of America is on strike. Rather than scream at TV screens in unabashed outrage, we fully support the scriptwriters in their quest for just monetary recognition for their work that they are not currently receiving.

This is not to say that the Hollywood writers are near starvation, but rather that if a writer creates a genuine piece of individual and unique work, that writer should be recognized-in full-for that work. Creating written work for worldwide audiences is the nature of the scriptwriter’s job, but it is the studio’s job to get compensated for writers’ work via advertising and stock prices.

With the advent of streaming video online, the use of digital video recorders, and TV on DVD, the production and studio companies of Hollywood were forced to reevaluate the audience base. What they found in place of the 1950s family watching Walt Disney-in Technicolor!-was a rushed and drama-desiring world of technologically savvy viewers.

In an attempt to keep up with the changing trends of viewers, we now see more and more shows streamed online and available through DVD release.

Many writers are not being compensated for work streamed online or available on DVDs, which is a blatant misuse of intellectual property. Writers own their work, and even if they sell that work to a studio, it is only right that the writer has a say in how that work is used and how to be compensated for its use.

As many home viewers have noticed, the late-night shows, with long-standing nightcap hosts such as David Letterman and Jay Leno, have stopped production. Without the writers, a TV show has nothing but a group of talented actors with nothing to do. In fact, broadcasting companies are already airing shows that require no script and star the average Joe: reality shows.

To spare us, and the rest of the TV-watching country, from the onslaught of repeats, reality shows and fluffy news features, we can only hope that the writers’ strike is resolved quickly. But more than helping our TV-viewing habits, we hope that the strike is resolved in order to more accurately and justly distribute the proceeds from using intellectual property to those who created the work: the writers.