Harry T Okay, well, I may have used too broad of an example on the word..."rights"
Different writers who are working in different arenas have different rights
For example, if you are a screenwriter, he, and others like him who risk their careers fighting for us, have made sure that writers KEEP most of their health care while being a screenwriter. Also, he (and others like him who dare to protest and negotiate at the table FOR us) has always been there fighting for screenwriters so that AFTER an episode has aired they keep getting a chunk of residuals from maybe 5 or 8 re-runs OF that episode (or more if they are lucky enough to stay with a show and be a staff writer) because if a show enters syndication and becomes successful...once the contracted residual payments run out--- the money all goes to the studios for the length of the success of that show and we are talking world wide sundication (such as MASH, FRIENDS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND etc etc etc)
If left up to the studios... writers would just get the ONE payment for writing an episode and then thats it.
It's very tough being a screenwriter because you have to scramble every season to find work and even if you DO find work you have to also assume that once the hit series you are on will end after 4 or 5 years and then you STILL have to have an income because yuo want to continue writing and being creative etc etc and while you wait for the next show to come along you still want to be sure your health care is paid for etc etc etc
Ellison was in there standing up for those rights for all writers
ALSO--- Cable television as well as network TV are all actively considering the internet as another source of revenue...once the television show airs in it's traditional timeslot every season.
Now, the writers are worried about this because....instead of a show JUST airing reruns normally on that channel in the summer....the same show can NOW be seen nearly instantly on the internet (see, HULU and NETFLIX)
The problem with this new technology is that the writers are having trouble getting paid for reruns of their written works BECAUSE.....THAT ELECTRONIC FORMAT (Hulu & netflix etc) IS
NOT IN THE CONTRACTS
Ergo....none of the writers who wrote episodes for those shows are due any residuals when their written workd air on all these cool new internet formats
THIS is what Ellison (and others) are constantly fighting for. As with all contracts, once you lose a 'right' it's very tough to get it back in future negotiations
So, sorry if i went with screenwriters as an example....but lets take US for example as well....publishers are scared of this new e-book world
There are already several writers considering writing their next few books FOR the e-book format--- which would cut out the publisher from the traditional loop.
The writer would make all the money and not just a percentage (after giving a portion to an agent and the publisher)
See this blog for examples
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
That's just a few examples that I can think of
And it's thanks to people like Ellison doing what they have done all these years FOR our benefit.
For that, we owe them a debt we can never fully repay