Forum - View topicNEWS: ADV Studios Voice Actress Revealed as IMDB Plaintiff
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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It doesn't. Most "age validation" systems are based on the presumption a user who can enter CC information is of age 18+. The transaction of withdraw (or deposit, in some cases) is the confirmation of verification. However, some credit card submission information may require a date of birth, but that's very rare. Mostly it's just name, address, and social security number (which, ironically, is against federal law to use as identification purposes). I don't believe IMDB is at fault here. There's more to this story, such as the fact her "agent" repeatedly lied to IMDB regarding the professional information sent in, and IMDB treated the situation as suspect. Given this, it's logical to assume they acquired verification from a third party, and this information was posted. In most cases, date of birth is not considered private information. This is confirmed when the judge, seeing the "Jane Doe" applicant, stated the DoB wasn't justification to hide behind anonymity since DoB isn't considered private when working in the public domain. It's a valid point, and it's now more suspect since her original date of birth was fabricated. IMDB sells professional portfolio services and it's against their ToS to submit misleading information. In short: she doesn't have a leg to stand on, especially when considering most of her work isn't based on lead roles. |
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Yoda117
Posts: 406 |
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From what I've read, it sounds like her DoB was put on her public profile (either by IMDB or someone else). She asked for it to be removed. IMDB refused.
She's paying for the service. If information is on her profile that she did not want viewable to the public, either there's an issue with the user agreement that she failed to read, or IMDB needs to take it down and shouldn't have used it in the first place. SAG and AFTRA appear to be supporting her in the suit, which gives this more legs than one might think otherwise, and they've provided the stats to show that the plaintiff's claims might have merit (good records from her agent(s) would help to confirm/deny this). Someone made a comment about this stemming from fraudlent info that she or her agent used in her original submission. Aside from Amazon's lawyers making the claim, I haven't seen anything else on that one. Both sides do agree that she requested to have it removed. I think that part of the suit would rely on that, as Amazon's lawyers make a valid point that they cannot knowingly use fraudlent info. An interesting item is tha one of the articles cited by ANN includes a link to an Op-Ed written by an actor where IMDB got their age wrong. I'll look at her Website later, but IMDB doesn't track voiceover in commercials, etc. For all anyone knows she does a ton of work in that doesn't get tracked by IMDB and that was what was affected (though her suit seems to be focused on screen work, not VO). Long story short - more info is needed, but there is a valid point that's being raised. The user agreement and her communication with the company should be the primary determinant as to whether this is actionable or not (and we're not quite at that point yet). |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2173 |
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I saw this reported elsewhere but they wrote it up as simply and older woman crying that people know her age.
Concerns about discrimination are fair. Digging through casting calls, resumes, and filmographies to find this information and putting it in the database might mess up her plans, but it doesn't seem illegal. However, the way IMDB did this seems hella shady and an invasion of privacy. Does the TOS say that your credit card information can be used for reasons outside of paying for the service and made available to the public?
This is true when the assumption is made that there is no discrimination and everything is right with the world and nobody would ever discriminate against people different than them, especially if the reasons are petty. I think there are obvious flaws in that assumption though with enough historical data to prove that's not actually how people work. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1499 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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She's concealing her age because of her embarrassing real name, and thinks that hiding her name will stop age discrimination.
That makes less sense than the Chewbacca Defense. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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That brings up a funny point: yet many anime, that fans watch, are "teen stuff." 
Not all actors get an early start, while some get better with age. An actor is an actor is an actor and should be able to act at many age roles, so they should do what they can to get around barriers that could limit those opportunities.
Interestingly enough, the actor guilds SAG and AFTRA both back her lawsuit, so even the SAG and AFTRA members are on her side. So it's not about guild vs. non-guild.
Besides, I don't think Hoang is referring to VA work with regards to age discrimination (on the contrary, age and experience actually helps there). It's all about live-action work, where your body is the one in front of the camera. Nevertheless, there's good overlap between videogame VAs and anime VAs nowadays. Anime VAing actually helps there because it shows they can already voice-act to already-animated video clips, thus saving the studio time and money.
Barring minors, age is not required for job solicitations (age range is fine though), in which case, they shouldn't have asked for it in the first place, let alone making it available to the public against permission.
That is immaterial whether or not it's for lead roles, because they never know and should not make the assumptions.
To conceal her age, she changed to a stage name for casting calls, so they won't know her real name and thus her real age. |
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Dimlos
Posts: 226 |
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CG-LOVER
 Posts: 355 Location: East Lansing, MI |
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Yup. Although, if IMDB really did get her info in the manner she claims, it really doesn't seem all that kosher to me, so perhaps she does deserve some compensation. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14761 |
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Whoa, now AFTRA and SAG are further piling it on against IMDb.
Shortly after the suit was filed, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on the attack against IMDb. They pressed the site to limit the use of age information, saying that for many performers, "when their actual ages then become known to casting personnel, the 10-plus year age range that many of them can portray suddenly shrinks, and so do their opportunities to work." They said that IMDb has a "moral and legal obligation" not to facilitate age discrimination in employment. Alan Brunswick, partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, said that age discrimination laws "are generally designed to prevent discrimination against folks 40 and older." He added that "because IMDb has no contractual relationship with SAG, I don't think they have any legal obligation to comply with SAG's requests, let alone their demands." SAG's general counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland says that while "there may be a First Amendment argument [to publishing birthdates], does that mean you should?" The main concern is for the lesser-known performers facing casting directors who rely on IMDb. SAG would like to see the site give these thesps the option on whether to disclose. But even if the guilds were able to forge some agreement with IMDb, age information would be harder to access but wouldn't be impossible to find. Although they've refined privacy settings, social media leaves a trail of information that may be difficult for future performers to shake. Apparently, this isn't the first time - an issue with WGA had popped up in 2010. The Writers Guild of America, West, is leading an effort to convince the massive database -- used by virtually everyone in Hollywood and far beyond -- to permit people to remove their birth dates from the site. "The Guild has a contract with IMDb to provide credits information and does not release information on age," Neal Sacharow, a spokesperson for the WGA, told TheWrap. "We have raised our concerns with IMDb about its listing of ages." The agent said that two clients had incorrect ages listed on their profiles and had similar problems trying to get IMDb to amend their information. In the case of one of client, who was listed as being eight years older than he actually was, not even photocopies of a birth certificate and passport were sufficient to compel the database to change the listed age. “They’re very fickle about what changes they do make,” the agent told TheWrap. “I don’t know were they get their information, but once its up there, God help you.” |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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I don't know about you guys, but it seems to me that she's an actress yearning for stardom, she's getting older, and is making a very desperate attempt to get famous. She's probably hoping she'll book interviews with the Today show, and that her name becomes 500% more well known to casting directors because of this whole ordeal, and thus, more offers come her way. It's stupid, but it's really ingenious.
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enurtsol
Posts: 14761 |
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Nah, otherwise she would not had originally filed her original lawsuit without her real name. She only re-filed her suit when the judge told her that the suit will be thrown out unless she uses her real name (i.e. she could not continue the suit simply as "Jane Doe"). And apparently, she's currently refusing all interviews and guest appearances, so as not to make it seem like she's just doing this to get her name out there. We'll see........ |
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