As you are perhaps aware, another round of labor disputes is roiling the waters of the entertainment industry. No sooner was the WGA dispute resolved when those pesky actors started getting touchy about their contracts. At issue, as was the case with the WGA, is the messy question of rights management as it relates to the use of actors' likenesses in "new media," that wonderful catch-all term for the Internet and all its corridors.

For some detailed reporting on the ins and outs of this ongoing dispute, I recommend BackStage's excellent BlogStage, which has been on top of the story from the get-go and continues to have the latest developments. Of particular note is the internal rift between the Screen Actors Guild (the union for film actors) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (which, as its name suggests, represents actors in television and radio).

I wanted to take a moment to note an interesting subtext to this dispute as it relates to the independent community we cover here at New Roots. It has been my general observation that much of the indie scene in both theater and film operates essentially parallel to the complex and hard-fought structure of union-sanctioned productions. As a matter of fact, I've been told by several independent directors that they try to avoid casting union members for independent work simply because of the crippling restrictions it can place on a production strapped for cash and resources. While I of course recognize the value of the rights these unions have fought so hard for, I do find it troubling that it has created this rift at their very roots. I've spoken to many actors and writers who have a difficult time sympathizing with their union counterparts and their impassioned cries for help in claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages. Many independent artists are spending themselves into debt just to get the attention of these unions and their members, and many have similarly seen their projects handicapped or even derailed by stringent union regulations designed according guidelines that many view as completely out of touch with the realities of self-producing in New York City.

A prolonged strike would therefore have a complicated effect on the artistic underground; it would create an opening for renewed focus on the thriving independent scene, but it would also pose the danger of further stigmatizing those artists working outside the union model, painting them as disloyal to their striking brothers and sisters in the industry.