Artists demanding royalties for their work may have found support from many people, but they have attracted trolls too.
“Lots of people don’t understand the meaning of royalties and are not even bothering to check what this term means,” said Ayesha Omar. “Some do know but are still being demeaning and horrible.”
She said that some people on social media think that by asking for payments for reruns, artists want to be treated like “royalty”.
“So, let’s talk about it,” she said and went on to explain the difference between royalties and residuals through her Instagram stories. Residuals are the amounts paid to actors when their work is distributed or leased across mediums such as electronic or digital. They are more popular in the West and the percentage paid to the artists decreases with each rerun.
Ayesha wrote the PTV used to pay actors royalties in the 1990s. The movement #PayRoyaltiesToArtists has been started to secure the future performers in need, she added.
Faysal Quraishi said that people confused about royalties need to understand them.
“A single drama benefits nearly 500 people,” he said. Authors in the world receive royalties for as long as copies of their work are being sold, he said, adding that actors deserve the same payments for the reruns of their dramas too.
A movement featuring the hashtag #GiveRoyaltiesToArtists was started by a number of actors last week. They have united to speak out against channels that re-air their dramas without paying them.
