General Discussion

davidn3600

(6,342 posts) Mon Sep 26, 2016, 07:23 PM Sep 2016

California trying to make it illegal for websites to display an actor's age

If an actor doesn't want to reveal their age, they can now keep it off the internet, too.

Under a new California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday, entertainment database sites such as IMDb would be required to remove the age of an actor if asked. The move was both celebrated by the SAG-AFTRA actors' union as a means to combat age discrimination and opposed by those claiming the move would suppress free speech, reports Variety.

"SAG-AFTRA has been working hard for years to stop the career damage caused by the publication of performers' dates of birth on online subscription websites used for casting like IMDb and StudioSystem," the union said in a statement.

The law, titled AB 1687 and authored by state Majority Leader Ian Calderon, would give sites five days to comply to a request to remove age information.

The Amazon-owned IMDb has previously won a related case in 2013 against an actress who sued the website for $1 million over revealing her age, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

https://www.cnet.com/news/actors-age-removed-from-imdb-new-california-law/

Many actors in Hollywood, mostly women, have accused the movie industry of age discrimination by preferring younger actresses. The idea of the law is to make it more difficult for casting agencies and producers to filter actresses out by their age during the initial casting process.

But many legal experts have already said the law is unconstitutional and impossible to enforce out of state. It also won't work. Although some websites like IMDB could be forced under the law to remove ages, it will be far more difficult to remove it from personal blog sites, media sites, tabloids, movie critics, or even Wikipedia without first amendment concerns.

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

California trying to make it illegal for websites to display an actor's age (Original Post) davidn3600 Sep 2016 OP

IMDB is located in Washington. Travis_0004 Sep 2016 #1

Because movie producers can't find out except by Googling? WinkyDink Sep 2016 #2

As far as I know it's never illegal to reveal factual information in this country Ron Obvious Sep 2016 #3

Well, sort of... Dr. Strange Sep 2016 #4

Travis_0004

(5,417 posts)

1. IMDB is located in Washington.

Reply to davidn3600 (Original post)

Mon Sep 26, 2016, 07:31 PM

Sep 2016

Not sure where all their severs are, but they could move all their servers out of California before the law takes effect.

WinkyDink

(51,311 posts)

2. Because movie producers can't find out except by Googling?

Reply to davidn3600 (Original post)

Mon Sep 26, 2016, 07:32 PM

Sep 2016

Ron Obvious

(6,261 posts)

3. As far as I know it's never illegal to reveal factual information in this country

Reply to davidn3600 (Original post)

Mon Sep 26, 2016, 07:37 PM

Sep 2016

That law wouldn't have a hope in hell of passing 1st amendment muster.

In Europe, even in the UK, yes. Here, no, and long may that stay that way.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if it's legal to reveal the true identity of someone in the witness protection programme?

Dr. Strange

(25,921 posts)

4. Well, sort of...

Reply to davidn3600 (Original post)

Mon Sep 26, 2016, 07:42 PM

Sep 2016

the law says that if an actor has a subscription to a site like IMDB in which they allow them to publish information about the actor, the actor can opt to have their age hidden. But if you don't have such a subscription, then, well, you can make a request, but IMDB can ignore it.

It almost sounds like a windfall (potentially) for IMDB.

Reply to this discussion