The internal war that erupted this week at the Los Angeles Times broke down along all-too familiar lines. Publisher Eddy Hartenstein, defending his decision to run ads for an NBC show and an upcoming Paramount film that had been designed to look like news stories, claimed that harsh business...

Even those who have only been following the Hollywood writers' strike from a disinterested distance are probably aware that the whole kerfuffle boils down to one thing: residuals. The premise behind residuals is simple enough. Writers create stories and turn them over to companies who use them to make...