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The increasing use of digital content by TV studios has led to confrontation between the Writers Guild of America West and NBC Universal (GE).

The problem began when NBC Universal decided it wanted to produce Webisodes, short content created for the Internet, for the majority of their primetime television programs. The response of the WGAW was to encourage members not to write webisodes until they reached an agreement for adequate pay and compensation.

In response NBC Universal filed unfair labor practice charges against the WGAW, saying that it was illegal for them to tell their members not to write the Webisodes. That's the complaint that the judge dismissed.

The National Labor Relations Board agreed with the WGAW in the battle with NBC Universal over the issue and the decision by the judge came after that.

what this ruling will do is apply pressure on the networks to work with the guild to offer one compensation package that everyone can agree on.

At this time there are a lot of private deals being made on the side with writers and the networks.

While there probably will be a deal made, the one thing that is not really being talked about much is the reason the guild is doing this. One big reason is that younger writers are willing to work for less to show what they've got and so move up in the industry, while veteran writers don't want to have to compete with them on price, so they're working for the deal that pays everyone the same, basically eliminating the competition for prices.

In that sense I don't like this. Why shouldn't there be individual deals made between writers and studios? That's what competition and free market systems are all about. If the so-called veteran writers are that good, they will be able to get good return for their work. If they're not, they won't. This sounds like an excuse to let average writers get paid the same as great writers. In that sense this isn't a good deal.