[Ghoulish Delight]

My sister gets to cross a picket line, ironically for a meeting about a topic very closely related to what the Office writers were talking about (great clip that was, btw).

She works for a company that makes software that can identify video clips by a sort of video signature. Their initial market was advertisers wanting to monitor broadcast signals and make sure the ads they paid for were aired correctly (in the time they paid for, not cut off, etc.). Recently, they've turned toward the networks as customers and their software's been used to comb YouTube (and other video sites) for copyrighted material to pull. But now they're hoping to change that model and instead of letting the networks know when their shows are on YouTube so they can demand they be taken off, they'll let them know so they can get a cut of the ad revenue that Google sells.

It's a better model for everyone than pulling the videos, and it's something concrete that the writers should be keeping an eye on in terms of the kinds of new-media revenue streams they should be working into their contract.