You say tomato...: rights allocation on either side of The Pond

Two stories on content rights agreements on the MediaGuardian site today are worthy of juxtaposition.

On one hand, the BBC has reached an agreement with Pact (the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television) regarding the allocation of rights as between the corporation and producers of interactive new media content in future contracts. Under the agreement, producers will retain ownership of their content ideas. There's little detail avialable at present, but according to the Guardian the basic aim is to emphasise and reward creativity. The agreement shifts the sector's business model from old style agency/cost plus to one based on IP generation, and should help generate a real secondary market in interactive content. Pact negotiates terms of trade with all public service broadcasters in the UK. Last June, it entered agreements with the BBC, ITV and C4 on the exploitation of media content across the full range of platforms.

On the other hand, the strike by writers in the US continues although new talks have been mooted for today. The talks will be aimed at reaching an accord on the fair level of payments for the use of writers' work on new media platforms such as the internet and mobile phones, as well as on derivative products such as DVDs. For evidence of actors' dumb (?) solidarity, see these on YouTube. Also, see these for general background on the dispute (1,2,3,4), and this on what it means for us (!).