Striking Hollywood writers to resume negotiations

LOS ANGELES – The first day of talks since movie and TV writers went on strike produced no public updates or word if any progress was made – but it did trigger a promise to meet again.\nThe writers and Hollywood studios were set to resume talks Tuesday, said a person familiar with the contract negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.\nOn Monday, neither the writers union nor the group representing studios would comment on the negotiations or even reveal their location.\nPicketing resumed in Los Angeles and New York and writers kept up an aggressive Internet-based virtual picket line that capitalizes on the very medium at issue in the contentious negotiations.\nThe Writers Guild of America went on strike Nov. 5 over payment for work aired on the Web. Writers want more money when TV shows and films are sold on Internet sites such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes.\nStudios, networks and producers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, say it is too early to know which business model will succeed on the Web. They want flexibility to experiment without having to be locked into payment formulas.\nThe last talks broke off Nov. 4. At that negotiating session, writers had dropped a demand to increase residual payments from DVDs and producers had agreed in principle to pay writers when advertising-supported episodes were streamed over the Web.\nAs the strike enters its fourth week, writers have stepped up their use of blogs, short videos, MySpace pages and other Web-based methods aimed at keeping their ranks together and reaching a wider audience, including TV viewers who will soon have to settle for reruns of their favorite prime time shows.\nThe guild’s East and West coast branches have posted strike schedules, press releases and other information on its official Web sites.\nBut soon after the strike started, other sites sprang up, including one maintained by strike captains and another hosted by writers for “Late Show with David Letterman.”