Remember that 40 something year old "actress" who made false claims that imdb stole her credit card info and posted her real age and blamed that instead of her lack of acting ability to get serious roles?

Even though the outcome was obvious, I thought the case wasn't going to happen until next year, but apparently it got dismissed several months ago.

Link:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/09/48190.htm


Actress Outed as Over 40 Can't Sue IMDb for Fraud

(CN) - A 41-year old actress who sued the Internet Movie Database for revealing her true age cannot prove fraud by the website, a federal judge ruled.

Huong Hoang, an actress professionally known as Junie Hoang, had sued imdb.com and its parent company, Amazon, anonymously in January, claiming the website revealed her date of birth even though she had not disclosed such information.

She amended the federal complaint in Seattle to reveal her name after a judge ruled that "the injury she fears is not severe enough to justify permitting her to proceed anonymously."

Hoang accused the IMDb of using the information she gave it to "scour public records databases and other sources for purposes of discovering Plaintiff's date of birth," and claimed the site refused to take down her birth date.

By revealing her real age, Hoang says IMDb created a "double-whammy effect" in which she "cannot get roles playing younger women, and because she looks so much younger than she actually is, [she] cannot physically portray the role of a forty-year-old woman."

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in April tossed claims that IMDb's conduct constituted fraud and a violation of Washington privacy law. The judge gave Hoang leave to amend the fraud claim, however, and upheld the claims of breach-of-contract and violation of state consumer-protection law.

But Hoang's amended fraud case still failed to sway the court.

A plaintiff must raise highly particular facts to claim fraud, and Hoang could not prove that Amazon's privacy notice was fraudulent, Pechman found last week.

Hoang's statement that the fraud claim "involves the defendants doing essentially the same act" fails to meet statutory requirements, the six-page decision states.

"Plaintiff's allegedly false statements fall into two categories: they either describe the security features of Amazon.com's payment system or they describe how IMDb.com protects subscribers' personal information," Pechman wrote.

"In either case, plaintiff provides no details, beyond her own conclusory allegations, that support an inference that any of the statements she cites are false."

Link to PDF of order to dismiss:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/09/imdb.pdf

Well, that publicity stunt was a FAIL! She's letting this create mind taffy and by focusing on that one detail it prevents her from finding the real cause, be it getting the proper training, different headshots, or a different agent, thus fulfilling her self fulfilling prophecy of never succeeding and blaming it on others.

quote:

Originally posted by TRUTHTELLER59:
Even though the outcome was obvious, I thought the case wasn't going to happen until next year, but apparently it got dismissed several months ago.

Agreed, this ridiculous-ness was pretty much a done deal from the beginning but still pretty interesting to follow how it all panned out and went down! Remember at the beginning of the claim when she was hell-bent on staying anonymous? *Hilarity ensues...*

lol who the hell would sue imdb. are you kidding!! I bet that person felt like a true retard in court for a silly age issue....

I bet those roles are just rolling in NOW!!!

The point was an organization posted her age without her consent, basing it on a purchase she made with her credit card through Amazon. This is not a laughing matter. We should have some control over how much personal information can be posted or accessed. If I do not give IMDB my age, do they then have a "right" to "find" it elsewhere by using my credit card to "locate"? The woman tried to sue anonymously because she didn't want to be tied to her age, and it still ended up with her being forced to reveal her name! I find this all very sad, and just another indicator of the Jerry Springer age we all live in. Nothing is sacred and discretion goes out the window.

So what can we do if we don't want our ages published on imdb pro? Any special precautions to take?

Has anyone ever had any substantial evidence that a CD who was already interested in them checked IMDb and was turned off by their actual birthdate?

It seems to me that CD's are generally under too many time constraints to be doing background checks on the actors whose work they've just seen.

As for controlling what is shown on a public database when the information is factual, that seems to me a long shot in today's world. More and more we live in a transparent world where far more than our birthdays is available on line. Probably more people should worry about the things they put up themselves - or did publicly enough to be caught on a cell phone - than information a database has harvested about them.

IMDb got her age from Amazon? I have a couple questions about that, first, how did Amazon have her age? Second, how did they know she was an actor who's listed on IMDb.

Did amazon get the info from the credit card company? If that is the case, they are the ones she should be going after.

I assume she has her IMDbPro account linked to her Amazon account and that's how they knew who she was... so just make sure that you have two different user names and passwords and they won't know you're the same person.

I personally never link my accounts. It seems like every site I sign up for these days ask if I want to sign in using Facebook, and I always say no... most websites don't need to know that much about me.

Mind taffy. I understand the importance of them finding out her age, however that ultimately has nothing to do with why she isn't booking. I truly don't think CDs give a rat's behind, nor have time to find out how old she is. If she's right for the part she's right for it. Period. It's not like they have to worry about some law regarding her age, like they do with me. The focus is wrong, they need to be looking more into security and why/how they found out her age, then trying to make their argument work. It's not because of her age she's not booking, their are plenty of older actors that book all the time.

quote:

Originally posted by Iceman:
IMDb got her age from Amazon? I have a couple questions about that, first, how did Amazon have her age? Second, how did they know she was an actor who's listed on IMDb.

Did amazon get the info from the credit card company? If that is the case, they are the ones she should be going after.

I assume she has her IMDbPro account linked to her Amazon account and that's how they knew who she was... so just make sure that you have two different user names and passwords and they won't know you're the same person.

I personally never link my accounts. It seems like every site I sign up for these days ask if I want to sign in using Facebook, and I always say no... most websites don't need to know that much about me.

Amazon owns IMDB.

I've given my credit card to pay for imdbpro and my birthdate has NEVER been posted on there.

quote:

Originally posted by ressydm:
The point was an organization posted her age without her consent, basing it on a purchase she made with her credit card through Amazon. This is not a laughing matter. We should have some control over how much personal information can be posted or accessed. If I do not give IMDB my age, do they then have a "right" to "find" it elsewhere by using my credit card to "locate"? The woman tried to sue anonymously because she didn't want to be tied to her age, and it still ended up with her being forced to reveal her name! I find this all very sad, and just another indicator of the Jerry Springer age we all live in. Nothing is sacred and discretion goes out the window.

Once again, amazon owns IMDB. I've made many purchases through Amazon and have used my credit card for imdbpro. And my age has NEVER been posted on imdb.

If she said that she didn't post her age, then clearly a friend or someone who knew her did.

This is a laughing matter with Junie, the "actress" who tried to sue.

1. She had NO evidence that IMDB stole her credit card info and put her birthdate on there. A LOT of people give IMDB their credit cards and DON'T have their birthdates posted as a result.

2. She's been in LA since 1996 and yet she is NOT in the union. It's clearly not age that kept her back. It's her acting ability. If she really was good, she'd have been in the Union years ago working on MAJOR projects.

3. She has credits dating back to 1996. No one is going to believe that she's actually in her 20s or even 30s. Her biography also states that she didn't get into acting until after college so she was no child actor.

4. Did she really believe that she would win by revealing who she really was? She looks 40 to me.

At Truthteller, your focus is that she has been in the business since 1996 and has no credits, and thus something must be wrong with her. Again, that's not the issue here. The focus is on IMDB posting her age without her consent and the HOW it got obtained, which from what I understand, is why she filed a lawsuit in the first place. IMDB also has a quirky little thing it does that if it does somehow get ahold of a birthdate, they won't remove it unless you prove otherwise it's not your birthdate with hard evidence. And then what if they post up THAT hard evidence? You see, it's really a catch-22 there too. They simply just won't oblige and remove it, period. And yes, I already knew IMDB was owned by Amazon, which is why I referenced Amazon in my post. Bottom line is, make fun of the woman all you want, cut her down, whatever -- but the question she poses, what information can be put out there WITHOUT your consent, is indeed something that is very concerning and important in this post 9/11 world. And to act like age doesn't matter in this business, well that depends on what you are trying to accomplish, isn't it? What she wants to do with WHY she wanted her age not listed is not our concern. It's the WHY it got posted and through obviously different channels.

Someone mentioned that there's much bigger things to worry about than age. In a field like this, I find that very hard to believe. And to dismiss so readily a real concern about the parceling and selling of a person's information without their consent shows just plain arrogance if not alarming ignorance.

It's interesting how easy it is to crucify someone who is taking a stand and fighting the fight. It's a tough lonely road to take, and not many are willing to travel it. It's much easier to stay quiet, just roll over, and just let bygones be bygones.

*shrugs* Moving on...

P.S. It's an open secret that joining the union doesn't necessarily mean you are a professional actor. All one has to do is look at the recent merge with the surge of people who lacked pro credits and education that joined the union just to save money and they had the $1300 on hand. Paying a fee doesn't mean squat.

quote:

Originally posted by ressydm:
At Truthteller, your focus is that she has been in the business since 1996 and has no credits, and thus something must be wrong with her. Again, that's not the issue here. The focus is on IMDB posting her age without her consent and the HOW it got obtained, which from what I understand, is why she filed a lawsuit in the first place. IMDB also has a quirky little thing it does that if it does somehow get ahold of a birthdate, they won't remove it unless you prove otherwise it's not your birthdate with hard evidence. And then what if they post up THAT hard evidence? You see, it's really a catch-22 there too. They simply just won't oblige and remove it, period. And yes, I already knew IMDB was owned by Amazon, which is why I referenced Amazon in my post. Bottom line is, make fun of the woman all you want, cut her down, whatever -- but the question she poses, what information can be put out there WITHOUT your consent, is indeed something that is very concerning and important in this post 9/11 world. And to act like age doesn't matter in this business, well that depends on what you are trying to accomplish, isn't it? What she wants to do with WHY she wanted her age not listed is not our concern. It's the WHY it got posted and through obviously different channels.

Someone mentioned that there's much bigger things to worry about than age. In a field like this, I find that very hard to believe. And to dismiss so readily a real concern about the parceling and selling of a person's information without their consent shows just plain arrogance if not alarming ignorance.

It's interesting how easy it is to crucify someone who is taking a stand and fighting the fight. It's a tough lonely road to take, and not many are willing to travel it. It's much easier to stay quiet, just roll over, and just let bygones be bygones.

*shrugs* Moving on...

IMDB/Amazon did not get her DOB from a credit card. That was a baseless allegation. Junie is not innocent here. IMDB originally did "get ahold" of a birthdate of hers. Junie posted herself a birthdate that was SEVEN years younger than she actually was, and it was on the site for years. She wasn't complaining then. It got changed to the real DOB in 2009, probably because a high school acquaintance or something submitted to IMDB a correction(nothing to do with a credit card. Sheesh.).

Junie's someone who tried to work the system to her advantage, and when it stopped working tried another tact-a frivolous suit to get her name out there in CD's minds. There's nothing heroic or noble about what she did-lying, covering up, making baseless allegations, etc.

No one is claiming she did anything noble. But you did touch on something I have brought up here. If IMDB does get ahold of a DOB, it will post it, and it's up to you to show hard evidence that it's not. Either way, it's not coming off. IMDB has made it clear that if they get a DOB, of any kind, true or not, they will put it up and it will stay up until proven otherwise. Then, just as you proved my point, they will KEEP the information UP. This should be removed, period. If age is not important, why bother HAVING it UP, then? What next, posting where people live, in case they apply for a job in Texas when they live in NYC? Please.

Last I checked part of IMDB's job was to confirm whether you worked on a project or not, which makes it the more legitimate spot for casting companies to look at. It's not IMDB's job to state your age -- that's an actor's perogative to post and an actor's responsibility to prove to casting/production their age and whether they can work here when they get hired for a particular gig.