Netflix to pay $42 million in dispute over screenwriter compensation

Netflix will have to shell out a hefty sum in a fight over screenwriter pay. As Deadlinereports, the Writers Guild of America has won an arbitration ruling that will have Netflix pay 216 theatrical movie writers an extra $42 million in unpaid residuals. The WGA is also seeking another $13.5 million in interest for late payment.

The WGA accused Netflix of “self-dealing” that helped it skimp on writer pay. Residuals for theatrical releases are supposed to be paid on revenues earned in a given market, according to the guild, and licenses like Netflix’s (where it’s both the producer and distributor) demand fees based on more conventional relationships — a Sony movie licensed to Netflix, for example. Netflix, however, reportedly negotiated deals with the Directors Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) that let it pay residuals on its own movies for “significantly less” than the cost of the film.

The win was helped by an earlier victory over the Sandra Bullock movie Bird Box, the WGA claimed. An arbitrator found that Netflix significantly underpaid a screenwriter using a formula like that from the most recent dispute. The officiator told Netflix to pay the writer $1.2 million in residuals and interest.

We’ve asked Netflix for comment. The WGA wasn’t shy about its criticism, however. It characterized Netflix as one of the “worst violators” of the guild’s basic agreements for residuals, and saw the arbitration as a pushback against media companies trying to “depress” pay through streaming services. Don’t be surprised if there are more battles like this across the industry.

‘GoldenEye 007’ fans are creating a full game mod based on ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’

There’s a mod in the works for Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 that turns another James Bond film into a full game. Fans are building a playable version of The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore’s third, and some would argue best, Bond movie.

As spotted by EuroGamer, YouTuber Graslu00 posted a playthrough video showing 11 levels of The Spy Who Loved Me 64. The mod depicts the key events and locations of the film, taking Bond from the Alps to the pyramids of Egypt and a supertanker in the Atlantic Ocean. It includes Moore’s likeness, as well as characters such as Anya Amasova (aka Agent XXX) and villain Karl Stromberg. It’s possible to run the mod on an emulator in 4K at 60 frames per second, though you can also play it on an N64 console.

It’s a work in progress, as Graslu00 notes. The build of The Spy Who Loved Me 64 that’s available on N64 Vault is a demo of the first three levels with a peek at a planned four-player multiplayer mode. It looks like there’s quite a way for the fans working on the game to go, though. The stage select screen shows 20 levels including, curiously, Bond’s childhood home of Skyfall — that seems to be one of the multiplayer maps.

Meanwhile, there’s an official James Bond title in the works. It emerged in late 2020 that Hitman studio IO Interactive is developing a game that delves into the superspy’s origins. It’s expected to be the first official Bond game since 2012’s 007 Legends.

Engadget Podcast: Why is the OnePlus 10T so odd?

This week on the show, Cherlynn is joined by guest co-host Sam Rutherford to talk about the newly launched OnePlus 10T. Why did the company choose to sacrifice an alert slider, wireless charging and some other features in exchange for extreme speed? How does the OnePlus 10T stack up against other midrange phones like the Pixel 6a? Then, our hosts discuss the cloud-gaming handheld that Logitech and Tencent are working on, as well as the curiousheadlines that permeated the consumer tech news cycle this week. 

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

  • Our OnePlus 10T review – 1:37

  • Logitech and Tencent are working on a handheld cloud gaming console – 24:15

  • It’s not just you: Uber receipts are actually crashing Outlook – 30:34

  • Spotify finally adds a play button that doesn’t shuffle, but only for premium users – 32:22

  • PlayStation Accolades feature is being discontinued because online gamers aren’t nice – 36:09

  • Microsoft negs Activision Blizzard’s game library amid acquisition process – 37:33

  • No, Google Stadia isn’t shutting down – 39:28

  • Discovery+ merger leaves HBO Max’s future in doubt, and Batgirl cancellation – 43:04

  • Working on – 51:58

  • Picks – 53:12

Video Stream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

YouTube testing ‘pinch to zoom’ feature for Premium users

YouTube has quietly introduced an experimental feature called pinch to zoom exclusively for Premium users, Android Police has reported. It lets you zoom into the video player and then pan around to look at different parts of the screen, both in po…

Elon Musk accuses Twitter of fraud for hiding real number of fake accounts

Elon Musk is accusing Twitter of fraud for hiding the real number of bots on its platform, according to The New York Times. In the latest installment of the Twitter-vs-Musk saga, the Tesla chief’s team claimed in a legal filing that 10 percent of the social network’s daily active users who see ads are inauthentic accounts. If you’ll recall, Twitter has long maintained that bots represent less than five percent of its userbase, and Musk put his planned acquisition of the social network on hold in mid-July to confirm if that’s accurate. 

The Tesla and SpaceX chief, who’s also a prolific Twitter user, launched an aggressive takeover of the social network in April after it became the company’s largest shareholder. While Twitter quickly accepted his offer, they butted heads over the number of fake accounts on the platform shortly after that — he also accused the company of not giving him access to enough information to verify the number of bots on the website. Twitter gave him full access to its internal data in response, but in the end, Musk told the Securities and Exchange Commission that he wanted to terminate the acquisition over “false and misleading representations” made by the social network. 

Twitter sued its largest shareholder for trying to back out of its $44 billion buyout deal, telling the court that Musk is wrongfully breaking their agreement by doing so. The website accused him of backing out because Tesla’s and Twitter’s shares went down due to the economic downturn and the “deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”

In this new filing, Musk’s camp said its analysts found a much higher number of inauthentic accounts than Twitter claimed using Botometer. That’s a machine learning algorithm designed by Indiana University that “checks the activity of Twitter accounts and gives them a score based on how likely they are to be bots.” Musk’s lawyers said the social network concealed its bot problem to get Musk to agree to buy the company “at an inflated price.” They also said:

“Twitter was miscounting the number of false and spam accounts on its platform, as part of its scheme to mislead investors about the company’s prospects. Twitter’s disclosures have slowly unraveled, with Twitter frantically closing the gates on information in a desperate bid to prevent the Musk parties from uncovering its fraud.”

Twitter fired back with its own legal filing, calling his claims “factually inaccurate, legally insufficient and commercially irrelevant.” The company said the Botometer is unreliable and had once given Musk’s own Twitter account a score indicating that it’s “highly likely to be a bot.” Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk is heading to court in October.

「数学的破壊兵器」キャシー・オニールが訴える不平等のメカニズム

「数学的破壊兵器」と呼ばれるアルゴリズムの問題を提起したキャシー・オニールは今、テック業界と社会が「侮辱」という概念をどのように利用しているかを明らかにしている。 by Allison Arieff2022.08.05 10 4 2008年の金融危機（リーマン・ショック）当時、金融業界で働いていたキャシー・オニールは、アルゴリズムを…

Keanu Reeves to star in Hulu’s adaptation of ‘Devil in the White City’

Hulu has ordered a limited series adaptation of Devil in the White City, which will star Keanu Reeves and be executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. The streamer announced the news today at the Television Critics Association’s summ…

Google made one of its best search shortcuts even more useful

Google searches with quotes just became much more useful if you’re looking for the exact place words appear on a page. The internet giant has updated quote-based searches with page snippets that show exactly where you’ll find the text you’re looking for. You might not have to scroll through a giant document just to find the right phrase.

There are limitations. Searches with quotes might turn up results that aren’t visible (such as meta description tags) or only show up in web addresses and title links. You might not see all of the mentions in a snippet if they’re too far apart. You’ll “generally” only see bolded mentions on desktop, and you won’t see the bolding at all for specialized searches and results (such as image searches and video boxes). You may have to use your browser’s on-page search feature to jump to the relevant keywords.

The company characterized the change as a response to feedback. It hesitated to make snippets for these searches in the past, as documents didn’t always produce readable descriptions. This is an acknowledgment that people using quotes to search are sometimes “power users” more interested in pinpointing words than reading site descriptions.

‘Among Us VR’ beta signups are now open

Among Us is about to enter the realm of virtual reality. If you’re lucky, you might even be able to try Among Us VR before it’s officially released later this year. Signups are now open for the spin-off’s beta.

As you might expect, Among Us VR shifts the action from a top-down perspective to a first-person view. That ups the ante a bit, since you may not be able to tell if a potential impostor is just behind you. There’s also proximity voice chat and the option to accuse other players of being an imposter with literal finger pointing.

Schell Games, which is behind puzzle game series I Expect You To Die, worked with original Among Us developer Innersloth on the virtual reality version. Among Us VR will be available on Meta Quest 2, Steam VR, PlayStation VR and, when it’s available, PSVR 2.

Paramount+ hits 43 million subscribers as streaming rivals struggle

You might think a network-specific streaming services like Paramount+ doesn’t stand a chance in a grim market when even Netflix is floundering, but it’s apparently thriving. The company has revealed that Paramount+ added 3.7 million subscribers in the second quarter, with more than 43 million total users. And that’s after withdrawing from Russia — if it weren’t for that, the service would have added 4.9 million viewers.

ViacomCBS partly credited the surge to expansions to more countries, including the UK, Ireland and South Korea. However, it also pointed to success with content that included its Halo series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, movies like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and live Champions League matches. Paramount+ is still leaning on its sci-fi audience, then, but not as much as it has in the past.

The overall Paramount+ subscriber count is still tiny compared to Netflix (220.7 million) and Amazon Prime Video (over 200 million). Its growth is a sharp contrast to Netflix’s nearly 1 million lost subscribers, though. The firm is also keen to note that it had the most sign-ups and net additions of any US-based premium subscription streaming service in the quarter, according to Antenna data. In other words, Paramount+ was outperforming all its main rivals, including Apple TV+, Hulu and Peacock.

Whether or not that trend continues is uncertain. Paramount+ is still expanding to more countries, and should be available in 60 markets by the end of the year. It can count on those newcomers to boost its numbers for a while. Eventually, though, the streamer will be more reliant on the quality of its catalog to grow its audience. And while there have clearly been some hits, heavyweights like Amazon and Netflix still have plenty of money and momentum in their favor.