Quoting RHo:

Quote:
First of all, we are not talking about credits here. We all agree that they have to come from the disc.

Sure we are...amongst the other things you mentioned.  Just in the past 2 days I've had to vote no on at least 10 contributions for credits where the contributor proudly stated that the credits were from IMDb .  You say "We all know" but "We" don't all know .

Quoting Kathy:

Quote:
You know what IMDb stands for don't you?... I'm dumb blonde!

. Don't get me started.  I've gotten in trouble for blond jokes before .

Quoting verdejt:

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You can call it what you want but if you take that information without giving proper credit then you are stealing. In this age of computers there is a new crime that is abound and can be prosecuted for this. Taking information directly from website/database without proper credit is stealing.

I'm not a lawyer (and don't play one on TV, either) but it's been my understanding that no one can copyrite DATA.  What owners of a database CAN copyrite is the way said data is formatted, or the intellectual property of the data.  To me this means that if I go to IMDB and see that a film has a release date of June 26, 2007 and I enter that date into Profiler, I have stolen nothing - since release date is public information.  The same for Country of Origin, SRP, UPC, Running Time, etc.  These bits of data have no intellectual property value.  But if you copy the Plot Summary that would be stealing the intellectual property of the writer, and by extension, IMDB.

Hello,
First things first, I’m what you may call a "newbie" as far as contributions are concerned. In fact it’s my first post here, although I use DVDP for quite some time. Just to keep my story short, I decided to start contributing for 2 main reasons:
1 – To help making the IV database bigger and better acknowledging all the work done by many others;
2 – To help correct some human mistakes.

What I would like to focus on is exactly this last point. When I read that we cannot copy from 3rd party databases, I question myself what this EXACTLY means. As 8ballMax said before, I’m one of the people he “had to vote no on at least 10 contributions for credits where the contributor proudly stated that the credits were from IMDb”. I’m sure it was my mistake on saying that, but what happened exactly was that I CHECKED the credits with the IMDB database. And why is that? Simply because there are a lot of human mistakes everywhere, mainly in DVD editions different from the American/English ones. Being from Portugal and having a lot of Portuguese and Spanish editions, I realize some times that the information on the DVD is incorrect, mainly in what concerns spelling. That is why I like to check with some other sources, besides the DVD itself. And believe me you would be surprised if you could see the errors we can find on foreigner editions…

This said, what is exactly wrong in checking the information with 3rd party databases? It’s not that we copy it, it’s just a matter of cross-checking the information to get it as accurate as possible. Isn’t it what this is all about? Is it correct to deny a contribution just because a 3rd party database is mentioned, even if its’ information and the one from the DVD are the same?

I’m sorry for this long text, but being the 1st one, I hope you can forgive me

I just leave you with one question: I got a Spanish Edition of a DVD “shot down” for 3 times, the last one because I mentioned IMDB. The information I entered is correct and CHECKED, mainly because I noticed the one from the DVD had some minor mistakes. So, now the IV database is missing this record. Is this the right way of doing things?

One more note:
Quoting Ken Cole:

Quote:
(...)
- Copying the cast and crew (via automation or not) from the IMDB: NOT OK

And if it's the same as it is in the DVD itself, why NOT OK?

I was referring to items like the plot summary and reviews and other written words. Yes you are correct in your statement about Data. Thanks for pointing that out. That was the point I was trying to make.
Quoting kdh1949:

Quote:
Quoting verdejt:

Quote:
You can call it what you want but if you take that information without giving proper credit then you are stealing. In this age of computers there is a new crime that is abound and can be prosecuted for this. Taking information directly from website/database without proper credit is stealing.

I'm not a lawyer (and don't play one on TV, either) but it's been my understanding that no one can copyrite DATA.  What owners of a database CAN copyrite is the way said data is formatted, or the intellectual property of the data.  To me this means that if I go to IMDB and see that a film has a release date of June 26, 2007 and I enter that date into Profiler, I have stolen nothing - since release date is public information.  The same for Country of Origin, SRP, UPC, Running Time, etc.  These bits of data have no intellectual property value.  But if you copy the Plot Summary that would be stealing the intellectual property of the writer, and by extension, IMDB.

Quoting pdmaia:

Quote:

This said, what is exactly wrong in checking the information with 3rd party databases? It’s not that we copy it, it’s just a matter of cross-checking the information to get it as accurate as possible. Isn’t it what this is all about? Is it correct to deny a contribution just because a 3rd party database is mentioned, even if its’ information and the one from the DVD are the same?
<snip>
I just leave you with one question: I got a Spanish Edition of a DVD “shot down” for 3 times, the last one because I mentioned IMDB. The information I entered is correct and CHECKED, mainly because I noticed the one from the DVD had some minor mistakes. So, now the IV database is missing this record. Is this the right way of doing things?
<snip>
And if it's the same as it is in the DVD itself, why NOT OK?

If your information is from the DVD itself then you don't need to crosscheck it or look at any 3rd party sources. Resubmit and just say the information came from the DVD - there should be no problem with that.
The only time we're allowed to use other databases is when the information is not available on the DVD. In these cases it's best to quote at least 2 or 3 sources, just to show the information is consistent. IMDB is allowed to be one of those sources, but not the only one.
If you are correcting a mistake that's on the DVD, again give a few sources verifying this, not just one.
Hope this helps!

All you have to do is look at the credits. IMDB stuff doesn't match the actual film credits. IMDB makes up names, roles, etc.

Quoting pdmaia:

Quote:
Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
(...)If your information is from the DVD itself then you don't need to crosscheck it or look at any 3rd party sources.(...)

Yes, I would agree with you if we lived in a perfect world, the problem is we don't. And again I remember that there are much more editions than the english spoken ones and those sometimes carry a few spelling errors (I can easily show you a few, if you wish). Hence the need for crosschecking.

Quote:
(...)In these cases it's best to quote at least 2 or 3 sources, just to show the information is consistent.(...)

I Agree entirely and always do it whenever needed.

Quoting kevin:

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Because IMDB data never matches the DVD credits.
Again, because IMDB is user driven, and driven badly at that

As per professional habit, I prefer more unbiased opinions, nevertheless let me add a question: isn't the IV database "user driven"? This being the case, are we better users than the others? 

It is user-built, not user-driven, pdmania. We have Rules that we all follow. Your local database is user-driven and there cyou can dow WHATEVER it is wish and you can follow your own Rules, just keep it local i you are following YOUR own Rules and they are Contrary to the Online Rules.

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