Visual FX Digital Artists Guild

A compelling video about union busting, courtesy of the TAG Blog:

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/confessions-of-union-buster.html

Scott Squires can always be counted on for well thought out commentary on the VFX business. Follow these links:

http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2011/05/vfx-business-models.html

http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2011/06/working-directly-for-studios.html

A disturbing trend among Canadian VFX studios. Memories of the way Moon Crescent Studios folded up back in 2000 or 2001. At the very least the Canadian artists get to keep their portable health care.

2008: Unpaid Digital FX artists seek back pay of $1 million from Discovery Communications and Evergreen Films
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/labor_series_part_one_unpaid_artists/

2010: Fake Studio Fails to Pay Workers
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023071?refcatid=3691&printerfriendly=true

2011: Lumiere/Meteor VFX Bankrupt Again?!
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/lumieremeteor-vfx-bankrupt-again/

When I’ve asked Chinese and Indian counterparts about their software licensing, I’ve been quickly assured that it’s all above board because they only use “open source” versions of Maya, Nuke, Fusion, Softimage, Photoshop, whatever downloaded from the internet for free.

Unfortunately the Chinese and Indian definition of “open source” is pretty much the same as the American definition of “software piracy”.  The use of “Crack” across Asia is epidemic.

The “commodity” FX production at bargain basement prices in outsourcing hot-spots around the globe is often done on cracked software. If the Asian studios paid the same prices for the software they’re using as US studios they would not be able to compete at the level and prices we’re seeing. Many of the studios in China and India would not have opened in the first place since few of them had the capital required to build any sort of infrastructure.

Of course, piracy isn’t limited to Asia. I’m sure there is a percentage of American and European companies engaged in similar practices but US companies operate under the threat of audits from the MPAA and BSA. No such threat exists in Asia to enforce proper software licensing. It appears as if the studios and people who manage out-source sub-contracts are only too happy to turn a blind eye to the problem, impacting the ability of studios with legitimate business practices to compete.

It might level the playing field if there was some pressure from existing unions and trade groups to get an agreement from film production studios and out-source managers to audit their sub-contractors for pirated software. There is simply no motivation for Chinese or Indian studios to run legitimate software licenses and many of them would go out of business overnight if forced to comply.

I’d like to see this issue addressed by VES 2.0