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Actress Sues Amazon For Showing Her Age On Industry Database IMDb
Amazon has asked a U.S. judge to throw out a $1 million lawsuit brought last month by an actress who was complained that her age was revealed without her permission on the company’s movie and TV database IMDb. The woman, who did not identify herself in court filings, said offers for roles dropped significantly after her age (40) was posted in her profile on the site; she said IMDb obtained her age from credit card information when she subscribed to IMDb Pro. Soon after, AFTRA and SAG panned IMDb for promoting age discrimination. Today, in two motions filed to dismiss the case, Amazon’s lawyers said the suit was “frivolous,” and the actress not identifying herself violates court rules. “Plaintiff’s attempt to manipulate the federal court system so she can censor IMDb.com’s display of her birthdate and pretend to the world that she is not 40 years old is selfish, contrary to the public interest and a frivolous abuse of this court’s resources,” they wrote. Amazon also claims that using credit card info is “consistent with the subscriber agreement and privacy policy.” IMDb also said it refused the actress’ request to take down her birthdate, noting that she had requested the site post a false age.
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Until ageism is no longer rampant in this industry, it’s a no-brainer for me.
I hope she wins big!
I’ve been trying for years to get my birthday removed from IMDB – it’s not even correct. They’re typical response is something along the lines of “We are only posting factual information, which can likely be found elsewhere.”
I would imagine a good portion are incorrect. They have no quality control in their systems.
I’m ready to sue IMDB because they won’t correct mistakes. They have no quality control at all.
Women after the age of 40 work on average 65% less than when they were below in all areas. SAG, AFTRA, WGA can pull the numbers for this. Women over the age of 40 are paid less than their male counterparts.
By listing the ages of actresses, writers, directors execs IMDB is aiding and abetting ageism and sexism in the business.
Hope she wins REALLY BIG!!!!
how hard is it for a casting agent or producer to approximate your age? i find it hard to believe that they even look at imdb for age.
Yeah… and I don’t notice when someone has crap in their teeth. Sure, it has nothing to do with their ability to perform but it’s obvious (age is front-and-center in IMDb) and once you see it, it’s really hard to ignore (I didn’t know Natalie was born in Israel).
A casting director might not look you up when they are casting you, but they could look you up when they see your character on a TV show and they liked what you did. Casting directors have amazing memories and they put you into a category the second they find out information about you.
It is also detrimental because many producers DO look at imdb. You see it in the breakdowns “someone in the starmeter level of uner 1,000″ etc. Producers and directors research actors all the time on imdb and they have the final say in who gets a role, not the casting director. Hell sometimes casting directors aren’t even involved in the picking for lead roles.
Regardless, it’s nobodies “right” to know someone’s age, if may be ok for imdb to look at her age on her credit card information, but certainly not to post it and make it public knowledge. By that rational they could post her entire credit card number, her address, etc.
Then you are Naive…do your Homework and you might know something about it.
Would love to sue IMDB. My age is wrong, my credits are wrong. They even had the wrong picture. Could I change it? NO WAY.
The place is a disaster. Ageism for women in Hollywood is real. Women over the age of 40 work 65% less than under 40 in acting. In writing women’s writing jobs drop by about 70% and they are paid dramatically less than men over 40.
By listing ages IMDB is aiding and abetting sexism and ageism in Hollywood.
I’d love to sue their ass for that they’ve done to me.
Just another example of the new media/technology companies not speaking “Hollywood.”
But then again, isn’t this same company that is “crowdsourcing” Hollywood feature film script development at Amazon Studios? Who needs professional actors anyway? Let’s just use our online customers!
Or perhaps of Hollywood not speaking “real world”.
Imdb are a bunch of bullies. We artists have a hard enough time getting work without giving casting offices another reason not to hire us via the reckless disclosure of our age. Our industry is uniquely discriminatory in so many ways already, why make things even harder for us, oh mighty, great and powerful Imdb? How about putting us tiny little struggling artist’s ahead of your arrogant need to publish our ages and damage our careers in the process? Have some class and sympathy. Allow us to remove photos from our profile as well. Give us a tiny little semblance of control over our careers and image. Stop playing g_d with our careers. I will be cancelling my imdbpro account today and I recommend everyone out there do the same. That’s the only way these bullies will get the message and stop behaving like our voices don’t matter.
Amen! I will be cancelling my imdbPro account today as well and I have circulated an email among all of my peers imploring them to do the same!
Imdb needs to let us tag or untag photos from our profile as well. Once an unflattering photo appears on your page it is impossible to remove. Completely ridiculous and yet another arrogant bullying tactic by imdb. I’m cancelling my imdbpro subscription tonight and I’ll be getting every actor I know to do the same until imdb stops bullying the artists.
“contrary to the public interest”
this old one – regardless of the specific merits of this case it always helps to remember that what the public is interested in and what is in the public interest bear little relation to each other.
That caught my eye too.
perhaps what’s needed here is a VERY LARGE CLASS ACTION SUIT, with all those whose ages have been posted joining. I seriously wish the actress who had the gumption to do this success in her efforts, but $1 mill to amazon? No, you have to talk language they understand. Get rid of the ages or you go down.
the IMDB pro boycott is a good starter idea, but anyone know a good class action lawyer?
I am convinced imdb (and not their powerful amazon overlords) are just 3 geeks in a basement in Iowa that have learned how to torment the “cool kids.” Someone should make a horror film about them! A frustrated actor trying to get “misinformation” off the site goes wacko – tracks them down and one by one deletes them! But only after 4-6 weeks of processing!
BTW Does anyone have a frikkin PHONE NUMBER FOR THEM???? What kind of business has no number???
I agree about the inability to clearly display a phone number.
I had an instance years ago where they wrote a headline implying that I had been fired from a job. It was up all weekend long and I couldn’t reach anyone to tell them that they effed up very badly.
Meanwhile, all the patrons reading IMDB for three days thought I had been fired. It was very damaging.
Call for information in Sherman Oaks, Ca
They have offices in the Sherman Oaks Galleria.
~
Coat
Awesome.
It’s revolting to think a company with the premiere site people use to check credits would so brazingly respond this way and deny someone from choosing NOT to post their age. They obviously have no concept of why people would rather not do this. Do actors put their age on resumes and headshots? Of course they don’t. IMDB doesn’t GET IT. They need to re-exmaine their policy and stop creating a stumbling block for people who need work.
I hope she wins… then they’ll get it.
Okay… newsflash. they aren’t in Entertainment, they’re in the business of making money. They post the goods for the same reason Finke posts the Twilight movie crap. EYEBALLS. “How old is [insert name here]” is a very common search query — eyeballs + advertising = $$$$
so unless Hollywood is planning on subsidizing IMDb, they’re probably going to defend their entire business model till the bitter end. They will never give up because as soon as they agree to start hiding data they start losing traffic. right or wrong.
I would like to contact the actress’ attorney and add my two cent in rebuttal to IMDB and Amazon’s claim. Posting an actual age, male or female, can seriously impact an performer! I have clients who can buy a drink without being carded despite being in their 30′s! If their age is posted,they may stop working in those late teen roles all together! So, members of the Press, give us the actress’s attorney’s name, let us help David beat Goliath and the arrogance- oh yeah, for a site so proud of their info, they are really outta touch with truth. It’s getting worse.
Oh yah, that’s totally the kind of publicity she’s looking for. Maybe you can, in solidarity, post your age, name and photo so you can get in on the lawsuit – let her contact you!
Sure I’ll pile on. I contacted IMDB once to persuade them to list my Producer credits before my my prominently displayed production assistant credits and they invited me to piss off. The headline on this case reads “…frivolous” while the comments here read “hmmm, interesting…”
They’ll list the category you have the most credits in first.
Actor or not is she 40 or is she not, if she’s 40 then Amazon did nothing wrong, especially if she agreed to the TOS, maybe people think differently in Hollywoodland. But, according to the article she wanted them to lie about her age, typical Hollywood crap.
If your 40 tell people your real age and let the chips fall. If your good people will hire you and any age, ummm look at Betty White at 90+. This lady is just out for a quick buck
Have you ever been told that even though you look good enough, you are talented enough, you are better than anyone also up for the job, that you will not be hired because of your age? That is discrimination. In a business like acting, you don’t play yourself you play a character. So whether you are 40 or 20, as long as your performance is that of the character you are portraying you should get the part right? Thats not how it works in the real world. Actors lie or are vague about their age in order to have the opportunity to play any role they qualify for regardless of age. It’s illegal in the real world to not hire someone because of age, sex, color, weight, or ethnicity. In hollywood it’s perfectly ok. Think about it….
IMDB is one of the worst run businesses in the history of business. No way to ever get a human to discuss a problem, circular “help” on their site, near impossibilities of correcting incorrect info and an anachronistic software application. Bravo Amazon! The only way any of you respond to anything is with a lawsuit – I know I’ve had to threaten one myself after I spent half a day finding a fax number to threaten one.
OK. Guess I’ll be the first. Ageism will stop, not when IMDB stops “bullying” people, but when everyone can just suck it up and be honest about how f’ing old they are. So WHAT? A forty year old actress is outed for being forty and she’s upset because she’s too much of a coward to say “I’m forty”…. No one’s gonna stop seeing her for thirty-five year old parts. They’ll stop seeing her when she doesn’t look forty. They’ll also stop seeing her when she whines about stupid stuff instead of doing a great job and being a strong woman. Want more work? Don’t suck. Furthermore – I can’t believe that THIS is the lawsuit. If someone was actually forty, proud of their age and who they were as a person and IMDB refused to correct some false information, ie. if the site said they were 50… well, then.. maybe that’s a lawsuit. This, however is absolute BS and completely frivolous. I side with the defendant. Don’t hate me. Hate growing old.
You obviously don’t work in this industry and should leave the commenting to the adults in the room.
Ageism is BIG in this industry and doesn’t just end with actors but writers and directors as well. I have sat in sessions where names have come up for work and those names have been shot down because someone looked up their age on IMDB and were deemed too old… or their pictures looked too old, etc.
I think the way to attack the problem with IMDB is the “good for the goose, good for the gander” rule. If they post the correct age of one, they should post the correct age of all. That makes it even across the board. Any other practice would then be deemed discriminatory. And since there is no way for them to get all ages of people posted, nor a way to get them all correct, they would then need to offer the option of removing said age to not give one person an unfair advantage over the other. Someone needs to explore that.
Ooo, nice. That’s actually a clever theory. Might have a fighting chance. Let’s hope her lawyers are as clever because just whining that they have no right to post her age is probably not going to be enough to win.
How can we help her?? Does anyone know if there’s anything we can do? Would that it could go class action…
I’m a television director and I have been in casting sessions where Showrunners and Casting Directors will not cast someone based on the age that is listed on imdb. It should be based on an actor’s ability and the age they appear – NOT their listed age on imdb.
The problem you have is with those Showrunners and Casting Directors NOT with imdb. If they are dumb enough to exclude someone solely based on their age, it’s NOT imdb’s fault. What next? Wikipedia? Facebook?
It is when the information is not correct and won’t be corrected by the idiots there.
Wikipedia can be changed by any user.
And Facebook is user run.
Me too. The kids today have no decency or tact. I’m canceling my subscription too.
Mort
Someone just needs to start a competitive site, plain and simple.
IMDB is such a poorly run company, I’m sure that someone can do better.
There is one; it’s called Studio System and their business model, probably due in large part to how they collect their information (not user-generated), makes it considerably more expensive and inaccessible to your average user.
BRILLIANT IDEA!! Let’s start a new site for industry!! How can we go about it?!
Actually, wouldn’t be that hard on the technical side of things. The hard part would be coming up with something everyone liked. With user-generated you have to deal with outright lies that make such systems unreliable; with verified-content you have to deal with the massive administrative overhead. Compromise in the middle?
I’ll tell you what. I’ll create it if you agree to help me figure out how to fund it.
I hope Amazon teaches her a lesson by counter-suing for attorneys’ fees. And, while I don’t know whether her not identifying herself is or is not a violation of court rules, I think Amazon’s arguments are rock solid. As long as they do not knowingly publish false information (which she actually asked them to do on her behalf), it is protected. And I don’t care what happens to this actress’s career, she’s myopic and selfish if she believes that is of greater importance than the First Amendment. And yes, protecting First Amendment rights (even for the big, evil corporation) is in the public interest. Bottom line, she deserves to lose this suit and lose it hard; think of all the damning information about industry players that has come out on DHD alone and imagine a world in which those named could sue to have the information redacted. This is self-absorbed, “it’s all about me” industry horseshit at its finest.
As an aside, if she really believes Amazon obtained the information from her credit card issuer, why aren’t they named in the suit?
I was wondering when the imdb trolls would start!
It’s not “Frivolous” if you are the one trying to feed yourself. She’s not being ‘selfish’ trying to make a living.
It’s not myopic to expect that she has a right to privacy on a site that she is PAYING!
You either work for imdb or don’t know anyone in the entertainment field. Their site is incorrect a lot of the time in credits and ages, and for editors, writers, actors, costume people, directors, it shouldn’t be on our page unless we want it there. There is a federal law against employers asking your age.
That law does not exempt performers who want to play a range of roles and not only the exact year of their chronological age. The law applies even to us lowly actors, who you clearly despise just like IMDB does.
An investigative journalist can dig around, find potentially damaging information about you and publish it in the newspaper, for which some pay subscription fees. That’s their right as a journalist and the First Amendment protects them as long as they don’t knowingly publish false information. Does that sometimes cost someone a job or other opportunity? Sure, but free speech and freedom of the press is a lot bigger than that. Life’s not fair; tough shit, get over it, she and her acting career aren’t the center of the world and she needs to deal with that the way adults do.
I’m not an IMDb troll but I also don’t know anyone in the entertainment field. I can understand the passionate response of many here but it seems misdirected. If the FEHA or the ADEA applies to those auditioning for roles – and I would guess that there may be difficulties in establishing the employment relationship and/or the extent of occupational qualification – then the appropriate target is not IMDb but those who consult it or other sources in the course of discriminating on the grounds of age. At best, pressure could be brought on IMDb to the extent that it is able to disclose whether alleged discriminators have visited the pages of alleged victims, although I doubt it. Otherwise, the case is frivolous. Say, for example, that someone who grew up with the actress concerned had written up a tale about them celebrating the actress’s eighth birthday in 1975 and published it on her blog and it shows up on a Google search. Are you suggesting that person or Google should also be liable for age discrimination against the actress? No. The objection to IMDb then comes to be simply about its popularity as a one-stop source of information and, by any definition, that is not unlawful especially when it is accurate.
So many other comments on here are not about this case but about IMDb being inaccurate and slow and/or unwilling to correct those inaccuracies. This is certainly a fair complaint but I have to ask, what are your unions doing about it?
I hope they don’t do that, because if they publish her name or countersue her, you will see multiple unions organize a boycott of Amazon with hi profile celebs leading the way.
She is the tip of the iceberg, and if Amazon wants to have the only reason people GO to IMDB, ACTORS, rise up against their site, then they should keep being so nasty to this actress.
There are 140,000 of us in Sag and Aftra that’s a LOT of “Fires” they won’t sell at Christmas.
It is the 26th most visited site in the United States and 39th in the world (with an even higher percentage in the 18-34 demo).
Or as their founder put it last year – 100,000,000 users per month (3 Billion page views).
140,000 people? 0.14% of their traffic. Even if you say there are two million industry professionals who would boycott it’s just 2%. We’d need a different tactic.
They do knowingly publish information….Where have you been? Nothing makes me more incensed then people who know nothing of what they speak sticking their two cents in. Do some reading and research and you might actually be armed with some facts
I have battled with IMDB for years to try and change inaccurate info on my page. This is a page that represents me professionally yet I am not allowed to control its content. That will cost me. So I have to pay for the IMDB resume, which I do, but the page is the first thing people see.
The only way to stop IMDBs blatant disregard for talent, is to boycott Amazon.com, its parent company. If SAG and AFTRA and the DGA and the WGA would finally ask their membership to boycott Amazon.com, then we’d see some policy change. Especially around the holidays. Money talks .
JUST CANCELLED MY IMDBPRO ACCOUNT! I will rejoin once they allow us artists to control the photos on our profiles along with our ages and other personal information. Bunch of people I spoke to are canceling their imdbPRO accounts as well in protest. Stop bullying artists IMDB! Have a heart!
I have not renewed and am canceling too….IMDB SUCKS BIGTIME!!!!!!
I have lost jobs because of age descrimination. One look at my face and most people guess 10-15 years younger. Thanks Mom & Dad…but really, imdb, get a clue!
Anyone who thinks an actor’s age is unimportant does not know much about the talent business. I’ve had casting people call me to ask specifically how old a client is. I never know what to say because as long as they are legal what difference does it make? If they see an actor’s age they won’t even see the actor for an audition.
The IMDB has SO MUCH FALSE INFORMATION, it is ridiculous that they even think they are in the right. This woman is BRAVE and AMAZING for standing up to them. When some people can lie by 10 years (younger than they are) and get away with it, while others have their REAL age posted is UNFAIR. This is an ageist business, and the less personal info people know, the better. IMDB should not only be sued, but someone should burn their building down. Fuck those assholes at IMDB – this woman better WIN BIG!! I hate IMDB. Everything on there is a lie anyway. Check Wiki for facts.
Ironic that in this case it’s the “facts” that are objectionable and the plaintiff prefers a falsehood. Even if you could make up your IMDB profile, it would be at variance with material on Wiki, TMZ, you name it.