artemis_9's profile

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Saturday, June 1st, 2024 11:03 AM

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Companies out of IMDb law on regional branches and subsidiaries ;-))

[co0653064] and [co0771917] from Argentina,
[co0746833] from Hong Kong, China
[co0817521] from Taiwan, China
[co0743189] from Philippines


need to be merged into [co0198140] as they are not different companies, but mere regional or national subsidiaries of the same group.

I discovered them when I was about to create another, from Spain, because of a series I've been going over now...

Accepted Solution

Employee

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310.2K Points

1 month ago

Hi @artemis_9 & All -

I'm just following up to confirm that subsidiaries are treated differently from regional branches.  For example, IMDb is a subsidiary of Amazon, and IMDb is the distributor of IMDb Original titles (not Amazon).

I hope this helps!

 

152 Messages

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2.2K Points

4 months ago

Many companies have regional branches/subsidiaries, especially the US majors, so I always thought that is the IMDb's policy on the issue. Where did you get that IMDb law is the opposite?

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2.7K Points

I'm not a specialist on companies, but I take it the same rule on Branches should be applied to subsidiaries of an international group:

«Companies that have multiple branches in different locations, but are the same organization should be listed as one company. »

https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/industry-professional/company-name-formatting/G5UFMUM3FLURTBMF?ref_=helpms_helpart_inline#

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2.7K Points

You're right, there are many similar issues, I'm sure.

The reason I requested this, and not others, is because I've said, (1) I came upon this one, and not the other duplicate companies you mention, and (2) I am not particularly interested in companies.

As Wikipedia says, the company group I mention in my post is already dead, after a number of name changes!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Networks_Group

But as you can see, at least for the editors of Wikipedia, Fox Networks Group was a single, international entity, with many branches, channels, and foreign subsidiaries.

I leave it to IMDb to decide if the subsidiary companies of Fox Networks Group are to be merged into the main file, or not.

Additionally, I believe that a clarification of this matter should added to the company name formatting page of IMDb that I quoted in the above response.

Employee

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@artemis_9​ & @Tonio_Fraga -

To clarify here, we should check with our policy team if we would treat subsidiaries as we do regional branches?

Thanks!

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Exactly.

It stands to reason that a subsidiary of a GROUP entity, which only differentiates by a regional or national tag, belongs to it.

Any lawyer will tell you otherwise, as in many cases they are schemes to evade taxation from one place to another...

Thanks.

152 Messages

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2.2K Points

I myself have successfully merged dozens of companies that were listed separately under 2, 3, 4  slightly different names. But this must be done only on an individual basis.

I mean, I think it would be a terrible mistake to merge, say, all the Walt Disney iterations through the years into a generic "Walt Disney" company. No, companies go through names and iterations like you and me change socks.

To continue with this most prominent example possible, if Disney has called itself "WD Productions," "WD Pictures," "WD Studios Motion Pictures," etc. through they years, all those different names should remain as separate entities on IMDb, reflecting the checkered story of the company.

Inversely, "Warner Bros." is not the same thing as "Warner Bros. Discovery," so both must remain separate as well. And so on and so forth...

"Like all workaholics, I am profoundly lazy." --Aki Kaurismäki

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Then there's the odd opposite case, like this:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0014326

It's obvious the company that produced the 1957 American film is not the same that produced the 5 early 2000s European movies. I even doubt the 5 European movies are produced by the same "Alma."

In any event this on should be split into 2 different companies at least.

"Like all workaholics, I am profoundly lazy." --Aki Kaurismäki

Employee

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@artemis_9​ & @Tonio_Fraga -

Thanks to both, we will confirm with our policy team.

Cheers!

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2.2K Points

I've tried to split the above mentioned company into 2 entities:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0014326

and I've received the usual boilerplate excuse:

"Our aim is to be the most complete and reliable source of movie, TV, and entertainment information on the web. In order to continue offering our users an accurate and trustworthy service, it is our policy not to alter or delete any kind of correct/factual information from our records."

Now, how can you be "complete and reliable" if you have a company listed that produced a 1957 American film and then 40 years later 5 early 2000s European movies? Makes no sense at all. It's even doubtful the 5 European movies are produced by the same "Alma" company.

"Like all workaholics, I am profoundly lazy." --Aki Kaurismäki

Champion

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328K Points

3 months ago

Cases in which there should be more than one separate company pages:

  • When two companies are completely different companies and are not affiliated in any way.
  • When two companies are affiliated but different companies. For example, Lionsgate [US] (registered as Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.), is an American entertainment company, currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California. There is a different company called Lionsgate UK [GB],(formerly Redbus Film Distribution, and briefly known as Helkon SK between 2001and 2003), which is a British subsidiary of Lionsgate [US].

The guideline we're announcing here does not dictate that subsidiaries (separate affiliated companies) should be merged.

https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/contribution-guidelines-update-regional-company-pages/5f4a7a2a8815453dba9b8144

(edited)

152 Messages

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2.2K Points

16 days ago

I think the 3 different listings for "Republic Pictures" should be merged into one:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0020540

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0226026

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0318435

After all...

https://www.paramountmovies.com/collections/Republic-Pictures

...Paramount itselfs claims:

"Republic Pictures, originally founded in 1935, is a revitalized label under Paramount Global Content Distribution."

This company was already revitalized in the 80s IIRC but if you look at the IMDb listings, movies from all eras, since the 30s to present day, are in the 3 listings, so there's no point in trying to untangle which iteration of "Republic Pictures" is which. A merger of the 3 into a single entity is the way to go, methinks.