Their behind-closed-doors negotiations temporarily ended, the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began sniping at one another Wednesday, suggesting that the issues dividing them are substantial and not easily untangled. SAG Executive Director Doug Allen told the Associated Press that the studios and networks "want us to give up the 50-year-old right actors have to give consent or not when someone wants to use a clip of their work." The AMPTP responded: "Will we be required to compete against agile opponents in the Internet age while constrained by 50-year-old rules, or can we collectively find ways to take advantage of fresh market opportunities?" The AMPTP contends that the studios and networks may only be able to monetize the Internet if they sell advertisers a package of hundreds or even thousands of clips and old shows at a time, since such clips are generally watched by a relative handful of online viewers, with each clip therefore representing a few dollars at most in ad revenue. Obtaining permission from the tens of thousands of actors and estates of actors who appear in those clips may not be feasible, the studios contend.
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