In June, members of the Writers Guild of America will vote on proposed changes to their credits arbitration rules. When multiple writers turn in multiple drafts of a screenplay, the credit you see on screen is determined by a secretive and complex process. Arbiters compare each draft to the finished film and try to calculate how much each writer contributed the end product.

The rule being considered for change was originally meant to protect writers from unscrupulous producers and directors who might be tempted to give themselves an undeserved writing credit to screw the writer out of residuals, much like many record producers did to songwriters in the first half of the 20th century.

Normally, a writer needs to have contributed more than 33% in order to receive a writing credit. To protect the first writer of an original screenplay, subsequent writers must contribute at least 50% to receive credit. That same 50% requirement currently applies to any writer who also receives a producer or director credit for either original and adapted screenplays, unless they are the first writer.

The new rule being proposed would apply to non-original screenplays only and would treat all writers equally by changing the 50% requirement for producers and directors to 33%. The reasoning behind the change is that it has become common for writers to be offered producing credits. According to Daily Variety, the WGA says their current rules might "force that writer to think twice about accepting the offer. He or she may be risking a hard-earned writing credit."

Here's an example of how the current rule kicks in. Matt Lopez was hired by Disney to adapt the 1968 novel Escape to Witch Mountain for last year's remake, Race to Witch Mountain. When director Andy Fickman came on board, Lopez left the project to write Bedtime Stories. Fickman worked with a second writer (Lloyd Taylor, uncredited) to fix the story structure, then brought in Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard) for more rewrites. The director did a polish of his own, continuing to work on the script during production. Early teaser posters for the movie list the director as one of the writers. The WGA arbiters felt Fickman's contributions to the script were less than 50%, so they removed his screenwriting credit from the finished film.

Many directors like to run the script through their own typewriter once before they start filming, without asking for writing credit. Creative contributions are a built-in part of their job description as director. Why should they use that necessary aspect of their job to take money away from the writers?

As for the scenario where a writer worries about taking a producer credit at the peril of possibly losing a writer credit, I always assumed it was the other way around -- that writers were being offered producing credits because such an offer guarantees them a credit of some sort for their work while the WGA rules do not. At least that would be my reasoning for accepting a producer credit if I knew I was being rewritten.

Call me naive, but I never understood why the WGA sees it as its job to pit its members against each other in a winner-takes-all approach. When a studio hires writer after writer to build upon each other's draft, why doesn't each contributor get the recognition they deserve?

Look at the animation credits for the current hit How to Train Your Dragon. Each character has a separate team of animators with each individual team member receiving screen credit. Other teams of artists listed in the credits include story artists, rough layout artists, layout artists, final layout artists, crowd animators, modelers, surfacing artists, cloth developers, previsualization artists, matte painters, paint fix artists and more. Over 250 employees were recognized for their work, even if it was foundational work that would be covered up by the next phase of design or by computer effects.

By contrast, a writer could spend months bringing a troubled script to the next level and their own union steps in and prohibits them from letting anyone know about their work. It doesn't seem write. Why not leave the rules in place for the main "written by" credit and add a Writing Department section to the end crawl? Anybody with me on this?

Dan Margules is a Los Angeles based screenwriter. His award-winning short film, Begleiter, is available in a Special Edition from Amazon.com or happy-the-dog.com. He was also a music journalist and co-founded and was president of San Diego Filmmakers. He is not yet a member of the WGA.