Dear Members:

Hello from Rome. As the current negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP remain unresolved, we wish both parties the strength and wisdom to reach a satisfactory agreement. It's important for us all.

Our own negotiations will start soon and I'm delighted to report that our indefatigable Secretary-Treasurer, Gil Cates, has agreed to lead us as Negotiations Chairman. His experience and wisdom will serve us well. Our Councils and Committees have been meeting to discuss and develop the pattern of our demands, and already one issue has become crystal clear — the Health Plan. For it to remain financially stable and continue to offer the highest quality care, it is critical that our Employers increase their contributions to maintain the Health Plan at a level our members and their families deserve.

In this issue we take a look at a group of our members whose labors go uncredited and largely unheralded — commercial directors. Their work has a powerful influence on our lives and the best of it enters the culture like a memorable pop song or a hit movie. Frankly, we've neglected them for too long but the Guild has embarked on an intensive program to further their creative and economic rights. As more and more of our members move back and forth between television, movies and commercials, it's important that the DGA foster an environment that protects and enables the director to do the best possible work — in every genre.

In addition to our cover story, I want to update you on the lawsuit we filed last year to protect our members from the unauthorized editing and distribution of "cleaned-up" versions of their films. We have vigorously responded to the recent introduction of a DVD player with embedded ClearPlay software that can and does alter our films.

Although we believe it is a violation of law and wrong for companies like ClearPlay to profit from selling software that changes movies they didn't create and do not own, these companies have been petitioning members of Congress to change copyright law to allow for this type of filtering, without director or studio participation in the process.

Our fundamental position is, and has been long before this suit was filed, that no one should be allowed to sell unauthorized versions of our films. Directors should have the opportunity to participate in any editing of our work in all its forms, as we do with airline and network versions. We are working with the studios, our partners in the lawsuit, to determine whether by licensing the network and airline versions of films to ClearPlay and similar companies we can protect both the copyright law and our creative rights.

These are only a few of the issues and concerns of the Guild that I look forward to sharing with you in person at our annual membership meetings in Los Angeles and New York next month. I hope to see you there.

Michael Apted
President
Directors Guild of America