New Feature – Free Title Images

Nic: I may be reading this the wrong way, but I wonder if the copyright issues have been stressed enough here. The FAQ says, "Anyone who has signed into IMDb and is in good standing within the IMDb community can now add images to their favorite movie or TV show." But later on it says, "Do not add ... Images for which you do not own the copyright or have the necessary rights ...." I've signed in to IMDb, I'm in good standing within the IMDb community ... but I don't own the copyright to any posters or stills from any movies or TV shows listed in the database. Nor, I would guess, do many of the people reading this. In other words, are you really looking for fan-submitted images? Or is this just a way to allow filmmakers to submit images to IMDb for no charge? If the latter, that would still be a great benefit, but it's somewhat different from what I originally understood the situation to be.

Nic, I also have concerns about the copyright issue, which I've expressed previously during the beta test. I've sparingly used the feature, only uploading images that are clearly in the public domain or for which fair use can be claimed. Some of my concerns regarding copyright are mitigated because IMDb's content editors have to approve the image before they go live. In addition, users can challenge whether an image is appropriate or violates copyright.

Hi Nic, I have a question about this copyright issue. If I upload an image which is taken from an official website and during the upload, if I mention the copyright holder's name (person/website) in the 'Copyright' section just under the 'Type of Image' section, will that be alright? or still I am doing any mistake by violating IMDb's terms and conditions? Thank you.

The Copyright issue is something I don't like either, especially since people will now be adding low-res images taken off "getty", "wireimage" etc ..I'm not fond of this being open to all, I did  mention to Nic via email in November last year to possibly create a 'badge' for those deemed trustworthy enough to use this and limit it to them, just open one option for "Posters" to all....I have been on wikipedia for nearly 10 years now, we have image issues all the time on their Wikimedia Commons (A free image repository) and many times photographers have sued or given the WMF (WikiMedia Foundation) legal 'takedown' notices...Its not really a fight worth getting into..anyways...IMDb should also be looking at trying to add an option to "edit tags" by allowing images to be "added" as posters as well for images already in the database..I know many of my images and other who were doing the beta tests have added posters to title which already had images but the images added as "Posters" were never actually tagged as the poster, for example "Umrika" , where the image i added as poster was never used as one...I bet there are hundreds others like this added by the other Beta testers since November..Hope you  guys work on that next :) ..

Hi, Thanks for reaching out.  We are very excited to release this new feature. It has been in the works for many months and we are already seeing a significant improvement to many of our pages. There are thousands and thousands of users worldwide who own or have the necessary rights as outlined in the Title Image Upload help.  Additionally, there are numerous other sources and locations in which images are available for shared or public use.   That said, IMDb respects the intellectual property of others.  As part of this release, we have also provided a way for users to submit copyright claims via the "Report This" button displayed below each image (right next to the "Edit Tags" option).  If someone believes their work has been copied in a way that constitutes a copyright infringement, they can submit a Copyright Infringement claim.  Based on the claim, IMDb will act accordingly, typically removing the infringing material. Thanks, Nic

I added some publicity images to my film, but I would like to delete some old ones that I don't want there anymore. I don't see anywhere "DELETE IMAGE" link. How do you delete or replace images? Also, how do you replace POSTER image? Thanks.

I really want my updates about images to be on the Update History...

Why all the hate ? I appreciate this new feature.

I really like the new feature, I've been using the Free Title Images for my image lists to create polls, and the most thing I liked is allowing users to tag the actors although I find it hard to tag certain characters, sometimes the character name don't show up after I tag the actor, I'm not sure why.

I uploaded the poster FIRST and then some behind the scenes and stills images to my film. The poster was not only the first image I uploaded but it was the ONLY one with the right aspect ratio for a main image and the ONLY one tagged as POSTER. The system has completely ignored this and just chosen a stills image at random and shoved it in as the title image any which way, with a terrible crop as it is in the wrong aspect ratio. What a waste of time... There is NO option to to change / edit this. It is VERY frustrating that there is NO WAY to contact ANYONE at IMDB, they just shove you on an outside forum like this and wash their hands off anything. I would be grateful if someone at IMDB could provide a fix for this... Thanks

What about Free Person Images ?

I made a mistake with one of my image submissions, submitted it by mistake for the wrong title. Is it a way to rectify that? I checked the link in the related confirmation email, but couldn't find any cancelling option. Here's the contribution number for your reference: #160504-183625-946702

Hi. First of all I'd like to say that I definitely think this is a step in the right direction, since it'll mean more titles will receive a "poster". However, your policy regarding poster/cover-images for films in the adult genre seems quite odd to me. Actually, so does your policy regarding images for non-pornographic films. I mean, if a movie's official poster or DVD/VHS/BD-cover contains nudity (or any other form of content you deem inappropriate), shouldn't it be allowed for the sake of completion? If you're worried you'd be offending certain people if you were to include such content (and I assume that is the case), I'd suggest a need to be logged-in, as well as changing one's personal settings, to view said images. Anyway, to further elaborate my gripe regarding your policy concerning images for adult titles, I'd just like to say that I find your decision to not allow any images, whether they contain nudity or not, really perplexing (not to mention discriminatory). After all, one already has to be logged-in and actively allow adult titles/names to appear in the search filter to be able to access said movies' and/or names' pages. Oh, and I also find the so-called descriptive words "prurient" and "tasteful" useless, since they're very subjective. In closing I would like to add that I'm fully aware that it's your site, and that you're entitled to do whatever you want with it. However, I'm also of the opinion that IMDb is, in some way, owned by it's users (just not in any legal sense). Anyhoo... Thanks for "listening" to what i had to say. Regards, Thim (a longtime fan of the site)

I use this feature and have had a largely positive outlook about it since its introductions, but thus far, I have only uploaded posters, box art, and in one case, a screen capture of a title card, due to concerns about the balance of copyright and fair use rationale along with ambiguities of a given work's public domain status. I should hope that Amazon/IMDb is willing to express in its own words the rationales of "unlicensed" use, in the event of a copyright holder requesting that a particular image be deleted, be properly credited or its dimensions scaled down. Of course, it suffices for the IMDb staff to simply comply with such an owner's demands. As near as I can tell, there is no established fair use policy, but rather IMDb seems to apply good faith when users upload images, and it assumed that the people making the submissions had some kind of right to to copy and distribute the particular items, whether ad infinitum or not. Peter, here, is also right about nobody being able to license his/her own claim of fair use to another without the blessing of such other or of the copyright holder. It would be nice if the pertinent guidelines of contribution at least mentioned "fair use". I mean, surely there must be some images on IMDb that the site has not been explicitly licensed to publish but which the company would like to display in some way and commits no harm or undercutting by doing so.