Actors Can't Hide Their Ages From Internet Sites: New Court Ruling

BAY AREA, CA – A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday blocked a new state law that would require an entertainment information website to delete actors' ages if the actors so request.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria issued a preliminary injunction requested in a lawsuit filed by IMDb.com Inc., an online movie and television data site.

Chhabria said the law, enacted by the Legislature last year as AB 1687, appears to violate the constitutional First Amendment right of free speech.

"It's difficult to imagine how AB 1687 could not violate the First Amendment," the judge wrote.

"The statute prevents IMDb from publishing factual information (information about the ages of people in the entertainment industry) on its website for public consumption," he said.

Chhabria also said state lawyers defending the law hadn't shown it was an effective or efficient way of combating age discrimination.

The law was sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and was intended to fight age discrimination in the industry. It went into effect on Jan. 1.

The measure required any "commercial online entertainment employment service provider" and any companion websites under the company's control to remove actors' ages upon request.

IMDb, founded in 1990, was originally called the Internet Movie Database. Its free public database now has 185 million data items and more than 250 million unique monthly visitors, according to the lawsuit the
company filed in November. Some of the information is supplied by users.

IDMb also has a smaller, fee-paid service called IMDbPro, which provides details and contact information about industry professionals and is used by casting directors.

The company said actors have always had the right to remove their ages from their profiles in the IMDbPro service. But because of the way the law was written, it applies to data on the larger public website as a
"companion website" as well, the company said.

The preliminary injunction can be appealed. A spokesman for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, "The attorney general's office is reviewing the order."

If it is not successfully appealed, the preliminary injunction will remain in effect until a full trial is held on the lawsuit.

SAG-AFTRA, which has been allowed by Chhabria to become an official party in the case, called the ruling an "early skirmish in what will be a long-term battle."

"We look forward to the upcoming opportunity to present evidence to the court of how this law will reduce or eliminate the age discrimination facilitated by IMDb.com," union General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement.

IMDb.com could not immediately be reached for comment.

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