Screen Actors Guild Archives

Studios, Guilds Agree on New Residual Terms for TV Shows

By Meghan Coyle
August 27, 2014

Television viewers may start seeing reruns of “Charlie’s Angels,” “Breaking Bad,” and other shows, thanks to new residual agreements between Hollywood movie studios and the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America. The new deal abandons fixed-fee residual payments and makes it more affordable for cable networks and digital channels to acquire reruns of shows. The new residual payments will be based on a percentage-structure. Continue reading Studios, Guilds Agree on New Residual Terms for TV Shows

Darwin Award: How the FBI Discovered an Actor Uploading Movie Screeners

By Rob Scott
September 15, 2011

In April, the FBI raided the apartment of Screen Actors Guild member Wes DeSoto who was suspected of uploading Hollywood pre-release screeners to The Pirate Bay.
DeSoto had reportedly uploaded torrents including “The King’s Speech,” “Rabbit Hole,” “127 Hours,” “The Fighter” and “Black Swan” (the actor had access to DVD-quality screeners via the use of special codes on iTunes).
According to reports, DeSoto has now agreed to plead guilty to breaching the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (for “Black Swan”) and possibly faces three years in prison.
The actor’s IP address was apparently discovered by Deluxe Webwatch using Google after DeSoto responded to criticism in The Pirate Bay’s comments section. According to Torrent Freak: “After several users questioned the authenticity of the file, mf34inc weighed in with ‘SAG now send out iTunes download codes for screeners’ and the utterly priceless ‘I’m a SAG member and thought i’d share these.'”
The article describes in detail how “an almost unbelievable series of amateurish mistakes” helped the FBI work its way from Deluxe Webwatch’s initial discovery to DeSoto’s apartment.