Some things don't pay dividends - eviltoast
  • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    It does matter how many times it’s being sold because unlike a car, which incurs material and labor costs to produce copies of, studios incur near zero cost when selling/reselling licensing rights to new companies, companies who have to pay these studios based on how many times their product is viewed.

    If they don’t want to split their hefty profits with the people who produced their product for them, I guess they can try to produce the product without them and see how that goes.

    • Overzeetop@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      The point is that the designer gets paid once, at the time if design, and the car companies make as many copies as they want without paying an additional penny. Anyone who buys a car never pays an extra penny to the designers no matter hire many times they use the car (analogous to watching a movie or show multiple times).

      But let’s take you’re argument- that it costs money to make a copy. All modern cars are filled with software - entertainment, operations, video processing, communications, autopilot. Afaik, no programmers at Ford are getting residuals for the number of times their startup menu plays, or the fuel injectors modulate for a different mix of fuel.

      The crux is how these creators get paid - as a fee, or with a speculative, contractually-agreed rate. We’re somehow appalled when one field doesn’t get residuals they want, but other fields never get them at all.