Dear Member:
As you may know, SAG-AFTRA and its members worked hard to successfully advocate for the enactment of California’s AB 1687, a law that requires subscription-based entertainment casting databases like IMDbPro and IMDb.com to remove subscribers’ date of birth information upon request. The law took effect on January 1, 2017.
Regrettably, instead of simply following the law, IMDb has decided to refuse to comply with the law and instead has filed a lawsuit against the State of California in federal court in San Francisco seeking to have a judge void the law based on several arguments under the US Constitution. Despite having plenty of time to ask that judge to put AB 1687 on hold pending the litigation, IMDb did not do that. No court has enjoined the law and on New Year’s Day it took effect. IMDb is now in open violation of the law and our attorneys are evaluating legal action against IMDb in addition to our defense of AB 1687 in federal court. The California Attorney General has the legal responsibility to defend the law. SAG-AFTRA also will be actively participating in defending the law and in making sure the courts understand the damage being done by IMDb’s insistence on making performers’ dates of birth available to casting decision makers.
While we had hoped IMDb would choose to abandon its stubborn insistence on damaging performers’ careers by forcing age information on casting personnel, SAG-AFTRA remains fully committed to seeing an end to this practice. This is an effort that has been years in the making and that may take more time before it’s done. We will defend this law and see it enforced as well as taking whatever other steps are necessary to achieve that goal.
If you have already requested that IMDb Pro and IMDb.com remove your age/birth date, please let us know by filling out this online form.
We look forward to working together to protect California’s law against this discriminatory practice.
Strength in unity,
Gabrielle Carteris
President
News
- Tags:
- News Updates