The highly inconvenient writer’s strike has at last ended. After freezing more than 60 shows, incurring as much as $3 billion in losses to the L.A. economy and proving that Jay Leno can write his own jokes, the writers are back at their keyboards.

Now the question on most Americans’ lips is, "What was that all about?"

Every three years, the 12,000 members of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) renegotiate their contract of pay with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). In the mid-1980s, the WGA agreed to accept a low royalty of 0.3% on every home video (and eventually DVD) sold, meaning that for every $19.99 DVD we buy, its writer receives 4 cents. This isn’t much – of the $45,000 the average WGA member receives per year, 80% comes from TV airings of their shows.

Now, however, the so-called "new media" (downloaded or TV shows via Internet) have become a source of industry revenue, and are threatening to surpass television as the choice of viewers. Writers wanted their new contract with the AMPTP to offer them a just cut of the $4 billion Internet media is expected to gross in the next three years – and not to shortchange them the way the DVD rate has.

Thus when the WGA returned to the table in 2007, its demands were specific: an increase in the DVD residual from 0.3% to 0.6%, and a 2.5% residual of a new media market expected to gross $4 billion in the next 3 years. The AMPTP flatly refused both these requests. It further argued that Internet airing of shows was purely promotional, and as such should not be of any profit to writers. From here, negotiations broke down faster than a Jack Bauer ceasefire operation, and the rest is history.

After the embarrassment of the Golden Globes, the AMPTP agreed to make some concessions on its contract and on February 10, the writers voted on a 92.5% majority to accept. According to the 2008 WGA-AMPTP agreement, the writers get 1.2% of Internet revenue (after a 24-day "promotion" window), and a half-percent more off of DVD sales.

It’s not pie, but at least we have our writers back.