Posted on 02/22/2017 10:53:07 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Hollywood stars wanting to remove their ages from IMDb will have to wait until the website resolves its legal battle with the state of California after a federal judge on Wednesday granted an injunction staying enforcement of a new law that would force the site to take down that information upon request.
The law is meant to prevent age discrimination in a youth-obsessed industry, but it has been widely criticized as a restraint on free speech. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria unequivocally shared that concern in an opinion filed Wednesday.
"[I]t's difficult to imagine how AB 1687 could not violate the First Amendment," writes Chhabria. "The statute prevents IMDb from publishing factual information (information about the ages of people in the entertainment industry) on its website for public consumption. This is a restriction of non-commercial speech on the basis of content."
That puts the burden on the government to show the restriction is "actually necessary" — and the judge doesn't seem convinced it will be able to do so.
"To be sure, the government has identified a compelling goal — preventing age discrimination in Hollywood," writes Chhabria. "But the government has not shown how AB 1687 is 'necessary' to advance that goal. In fact, it's not clear how preventing one mere website from publishing age information could meaningfully combat discrimination at all. And even if restricting publication on this one website could confer some marginal antidiscrimination benefit, there are likely more direct, more effective, and less speech-restrictive ways of achieving the same end. . ."
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Yet another frivolous lawsuit. Most people using IMDB are just looking up plots and actors’ filmographies. Those who want to hire actors surely have other sources for ages.
It's a law, not a lawsuit.
And, thankfully, it got struck down. God damn California!
And, if it were upheld, I'd recommend IMDB move to Russia!
Geez, are they going to go after Wikipedia next?
Shouldn’t they be getting rid of their gender? (can i say that word?)
Wouldn’t want Hollyweird to discriminate against any of the 30+ genders.
Celebritards lie about their ages, imagine that.
How many lie about their politics to get work in Hollyweird?
Wikipedia deals in alternative facts.
Tomorrow’s history may be different from today’s.
Pizzagate.
That is why this case is going nowhere. Their servers are in Washington state as well as their corporation. They have no business presence in California. So California has no jurisdiction over what they put on their website.
I remember reading a profile about the female ships doctor, Gates McFadden, on StarTrek, the Next Generation. Started in 1987. The profile said she was 29 years old. What a pantload of crapola. She was born in 1949 and was closer to 39 than 29.
I wonder how you say that.
move from California.
what does it matter? little by little the celebrities shave off a year here and a year there... actresses that started out as my age now claim to be 3, 4, 5 years younger...
I stand corrected. Frivolous law would be more appropriate.
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