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