Not a surprise: about 93 percent of Writers Guild in New York and Los Angeles members have voted to approve a new three-year contract, closing the chapter on contentious chapter on digital compensation, at least for now. The new contract is retroactive to Feb. 13 and will last until May 2, 2011. Besides current reuse, the deal also covers the reuse on new media platforms of the work done in film since 1971 and in TV since 1977. In the statement on it, WGA president had some bombastic words: “The 2008 MBA establishes a beachhead on the Internet and in new media that will guarantee our share of a potentially vast and bountiful future.”

And if anyone was confused by the “wins” of WGA, here they are as pointed out by them:

The contract breaks new ground for writers by:
—establishing WGA jurisdiction over writing for new media
—giving writers “separated rights” in new media content (separated rights are the contractual rights traditionally enjoyed by writers of original television and motion picture scripts)
—establishing residual payments for new media reuse of covered material, including Internet downloads and ad-supported streaming of feature films and television programs
—establishing “distributor’s gross” as the basis for calculating new media residual payments
—creating meaningful access to information and auditing tools that will allow the WGA to monitor the development of new media markets

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