Love what Jim is doing here, but I had to ask myself the question if it was legal. So, I researched it, and found out some very interesting things.
For more information, check out: IMDb Message Board Archives: Are They Legal or Not?.
Gosh. You really struck a raw nerve in me earlier. I am sorry for my overreaction in my posts above.
I will try to explain myself with a cool head now. You have focused on not only the legal implications but also ethical implications of copyright law. Indeed, copyright laws serve a very important function because they help ensure that the creator or owner of a work generates revenue that is commensurate to their effort and merit. So for instance, a studio that invests millions of dollars in a movie stands to lose a lot of money because pirated DVDs can cause people not to buy legally produced DVDs. I agree with that completely.
With the IMDb message boards, the situation is different. IMDb has completely done away with their message boards, and (for now) plans to do nothing with them again. They have no revenue to be gained whatsoever from the old message board content, and (it seems that this is what they believe for now) could not care what happens with that content. The most basic function of a copyright law is to prevent the owner from losing money/revenue due to unauthorized use of content. When the owner does not care what happens with the content, the spirit of the copyright law (or its ethical implications) is moot.
Now I am not claiming that I know for sure about Jim's interactions. If you have reason to doubt it you can email Jim, or (*without pressuring them in the least to take an official stand*) email IMDb and gauge how they feel about this. You should not ask them for an official statement. A written license will involve paperwork, and the IMDb people would rather not do it, because they have nothing to gain from it. In such a case, they might as well claim that this is illegal, because its just easier for them. Asking an official to go on the record and say "I give MovieChat the rights to use this content" will backfire because it may again have legal implications in which s/he will have to be involved. The stand that IMDb has taken for now works to its convenience. They have nothing to lose if others use their old content unofficially, and in the rare circumstance that they decide to open their message boards AND restore all their old messages (highly unlikely but you never know) they can always send a cease and desist letter to Jim. So if you really want to know if what Jim has done is unethical, you could contact IMDb, and simply ask them the question that is at the crux of the function of Copyright law, "Is the publication of this old archive disadvantaging you or your business in any way?". In my opinion, the answer to this question should satisfy the ethical (and hence, in a way, legal) considerations surrounding the copyright law. If you get a response that is different from what I am expecting, I would say that you are 100% justified in creating this thread in this forum about responsible use of content.
I understand your frustration. I'm as bummed out as the next person that the boards were shut down. I'm glad you have a thorough understanding of the importance of copyright law, but I'm dismayed how many people don't. But even if a person doesn't care if future generations will have any creative content to enjoy (or perhaps even sooner than that), another thing I didn't want to experience again was getting hooked on a board, just to have it be shut down.
Before I began what became thorough research, all I knew was IMDb was the exclusive copyright holder, their terms state that no data-scraping is allowed, and, generally speaking, when a website publishes information that belongs to another copyright holder without their explicit permission, it's a copyright violation. All that coupled with Col Neeham's (the CEO of IMDb) official stance on creating an archive, which was:
"We can archive the boards and make the content available. We have chosen not to do so. If we were to make a static archive available then that would include all of the inappropriate, abusive and off-topic discussions preserved; people would want the right to edit what they posted, to remove it, to report the content, to post follow-ups because things had changed and so on. By the time you build in all of those features, all you would have is an even more limited and inferior version of the boards which would also largely be going stale."
And it seemed like this website was ripe for a cease and desist. No disrespect to Jim, but I like to find things out for myself.
As it turns out, copyright law is deliberately written to be open to interpretation, and copyright lawsuits are usually decided on a case-by-case basis. Neither IMDb, Jim, or I can say with 100% certainty how the courts would rule in a case as complex as this, if it comes to that. I was able to reference case law, which is what the courts usually do, to support the claim that this website is legal. I really wish more people had read my article before they assumed my motives.
The most compelling argument I could come up with for asserting this website is legal was a fair case ruling where an author wrote an analysis of John F. Kennedy's assassination, using copyrighted film footage. The courts decided the public had such a strong interest in this subject that it outweighed the copyright holder's interest. I think the same argument could be made about the message boards, and people can read about that in my article.
For the record, I did try to contact Jim, but I could see no way to do it. I couldn't find a way to PM him on his profile page, and his website is Guard Protected, so I can't see his contact information. If there's a way, I would be grateful if someone would let me know.
On the off chance that someone actually wants to read my article, here's the link again: IMDb Message Board Archives: Are They Legal or Not? I know it's long, but it covers a lot of ground, and I tried to sum it up the best I could. I felt a lot better after I researched it, and I thought other people might be interested in it. That is all.
jim@moviechat.org is his email ID. He is currently working round the clock with coding and may not respond to you immediately but will hopefully do so eventually.
shareI would really love to see imdb further damage their reputation by challenging the legality of this site on the basis of the use of archived posts.
Frankly, I would be more concerned over the similarities in the UI.
The UI looks more like Disqus than IMDB. The only similarity I see is the yellow site logo.
shareIf this site gets really popular you can see the jerks at imdb taking action.
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