Synopsis
IMDB aka “Information Movie Data Base” was a fantasy hobby for British-born Col Needham that scored a hit and attraction via the Internet, showcasing movies and TV shows, cast, crew and trivia with a baked-in-audience, considering the universal fascination with Hollywood. Needham and his bedroom hobby became big business, eventually combined with Jeff Bezos Amazon.com.
Needham and his team penned the phrase about IMDB, as a “third-party site respected for its collection of factual information about movies, actors, and everything else film-related.” Nonetheless, the site is anything but factual.
Under Needham’s leadership, IMDB began making contractual and legal determinations regarding working film and TV personalities, while lacking any experience to question any artist in any capacity.
The growth and celebrity of IMDB drew movie stars, filmmakers and gossip-mongers like moth to flame. Fifteen minutes of fame directly or by association drove many to subscribe, turning it into a money-making endeavor.
Needham enlisted UK-based PrivateEye.com to take private information from subscribers and run background checks, based on credit card information provided by subscribers. This was done to publish birthdates of celebrities, which can be a kiss of death for seasoned and working talent.
One such actress, Junie Huang, elected to sue IMBD for privacy violations for posting her birthdate. The Screen Actors Guild rallied behind the plaintiff’s privacy complaint that negatively impacted the industry’s force with disparaging age differences in competitive fields.
The Screen Actors Guild raced to protect the income earning ability of its membership, with President Gabrielle Carteris and SAG Legal Counsel Duncan Ireland-Crabtree formulating protective legislation in conjunction with the California State Attorney General Kamala Harris in the creating AB 1687 banning the publication of birthdates for artists.
IMDB, Col Needham and Amazon.com chose to sue SAG and the CA AG for first amendment violations in addition to the birthdate victory in the Federal Central District of California.
Acclaimed movie stars, celebrities and personalities rallied to respond with on-camera objections prepared well in advance, and with a unified commitment to be witnesses in court, all of which never had its day in court.
IMDB was emboldened and went further to target and harass, and to violate the first amendment rights of others, to include blatant censorship of intellectual properties and to disrupt and to deny economic entitlements, and to harm individuals legally, financially, and professionally.
In June 2020, IMDB’s privacy court victory in the federal court of appeals turned upside-down and ruled against the obvious age discrimination. It was ordered, IMDB could no longer publish the ages of talent in the industry. Nonetheless, IMDB still targets talent and mismanages data and info.