Wow, the networks play dirty

In case you haven't heard, guild writers are currently on strike, picketing the studios so that they can get some residuals on digital downloads and dvd sales. They're asking for 4 cents, and my guess is that they probably aren't going to get four cents -- they're likely to get a penny or two once things are totally negotiated out, but in the meantime, the network is still doing digital downloads, and in fact, NBC, which had previously blasted Apple for not wanting to raise their price from 1.99, has dropped the prices on their shows on Amazon Unbox to just 99 cents per show. There's a bit of strategy involved here -- just as it was strategic for fleeing Iraqi forces to burn the oil wells, NBC has chosen a scorched earth policy of their own -- by offering cheap downloads now, they ensure that the volume of digital downloads is less in the future (when they actually have to share the pie with writers).