It would be helpful if the devs at TheMovieDB would make it possible to populate movie information by uploading a .nfo. I know a lot of us have created .nfo files for our movies and it would be great to be able to simply upload those and let TheMovieDB parse them into their database.
2009-02-09, 03:54
theophile Wrote:It would be helpful if the devs at TheMovieDB would make it possible to populate movie information by uploading a .nfo. I know a lot of us have created .nfo files for our movies and it would be great to be able to simply upload those and let TheMovieDB parse them into their database.
Agreed. I've spent quite a bit of time adding details to themoviedb but the site runs really slow for me. It takes forever to fill out the details. Uploading my nfo's would be quick and easy.
2009-02-09, 16:13
LaTropa64 Wrote:Agreed. I've spent quite a bit of time adding details to themoviedb but the site runs really slow for me. It takes forever to fill out the details. Uploading my nfo's would be quick and easy.
I went over to the TMDB forum to post about this and noticed a thread about "plagiarism" of plot descriptions from IMDB. Turns out the folks behind TMDB are eventually going to take all this user-contributed data and try to sell it. Disallowing pasting from IMDB is a "CYA" move.
So that makes the uploading .nfo idea moot for me (since my .nfo's are generated from IMDB anyway), and anyway, I won't be contributing to TMDB any more. Apparently, they're worried about "stealing" content from IMDB but they're not worried about stealing it from you or me.
2009-02-09, 16:25
theophile Wrote:I won't be contributing to TMDB any more. Apparently, they're worried about "stealing" content from IMDB but they're not worried about stealing it from you or me.
You have a strange definition of stealing.
2009-02-09, 16:49
rwparris2 Wrote:You have a strange definition of stealing.No, they have a strange definition of stealing. User-submitted plot descriptions on IMDB remain the property of the contributors for Copyright purposes since those users authored them. I was told on the TMDB forum that it doesn't matter, it's still tantamount to stealing from them.
So if they're so concerned for intellectual property rights that even use-submitted plot descriptions can't be pasted, what am I supposed to think when they say that they are going to sell, without permission, my own Copyrighted plot descriptions that I author for TMDB?
Even the IMDB terms of use say that contributing information grants a commercial use license to IMDB. There is nothing on TMBD like that. At least IMDB is up front about the fact that they are going to derive a financial benefit by using data submitted by their users. TMBD is hiding the ball. They make it look like an open wiki-style database, but if that user "GBee" is correct (and he may not be), it's only a matter of time until they adopt a commercial model.
It's not that complicated. If I contribute data that I author and I do not grant them a license to make commercial use of my work, it's stealing if they then sell it anyway. Isn't it?
2009-02-09, 17:16
theophile Wrote:No, they have a strange definition of stealing. User-submitted plot descriptions on IMDB remain the property of the contributors for Copyright purposes since those users authored them. I was told on the TMDB forum that it doesn't matter, it's still tantamount to stealing from them.
So if they're so concerned for intellectual property rights that even use-submitted plot descriptions can't be pasted, what am I supposed to think when they say that they are going to sell, without permission, my own Copyrighted plot descriptions that I author for TMDB?
Even the IMDB terms of use say that contributing information grants a commercial use license to IMDB. There is nothing on TMBD like that. At least IMDB is up front about the fact that they are going to derive a financial benefit by using data submitted by their users. TMBD is hiding the ball. They make it look like an open wiki-style database, but if that user "GBee" is correct (and he may not be), it's only a matter of time until they adopt a commercial model.
It's not that complicated. If I contribute data that I author and I do not grant them a license to make commercial use of my work, it's stealing if they then sell it anyway. Isn't it?
You're right, I assumed tmdb had a TOS similar to imdb's that automatically grants tmdb a license to use user submitted content.
FWIW, I don't think they're doing anything wrong here... the site is still newish and from what I understand, the owners are probably new to this, and simply need to make users agree to their TOS when they register.
Asking users not to submit anything from IMDB so they can have all original content is their choice, regardless of the reasoning behind it.
2009-02-09, 17:21
rwparris2 Wrote:Asking users not to submit anything from IMDB so they can have all original content is their choice, regardless of the reasoning behind it.That's certainly true. I'm just pointing out that they do not appear to be fan-friendly wiki-style site that I thought they were. I had intended to start adding/updating movies on there as fast as possible in order to help build up an open alternative to IMDB. I've decided instead to just re-enable the IMDB scraper and use TMDB only for fanart.
2009-02-09, 17:35
theophile Wrote:That's certainly true. I'm just pointing out that they do not appear to be fan-friendly wiki-style site that I thought they were. I had intended to start adding/updating movies on there as fast as possible in order to help build up an open alternative to IMDB. I've decided instead to just re-enable the IMDB scraper and use TMDB only for fanart.
IMHO possibly licensing the info (according to a user, not a dev, as you pointed out before) to help hosting costs doesn't make it less friendly, but ah well, we all have our own opinions.
2009-02-09, 17:48
rwparris2 Wrote:IMHO possibly licensing the info (according to a user, not a dev, as you pointed out before) to help hosting costs doesn't make it less friendly, but ah well, we all have our own opinions.
That's true too. I would not normally object to something like that. The reason I am all bent out of shape over this is because of the lecture they gave me about respecting people's intellectual property rights, even if it is just a user-contributed synopsis and even if there's a 0% chance of litigation over the issue. There's a glaring hypocrisy in being that concerned about the intellectual property rights of IMDB users, but not giving a crap about the same rights of TMDB users.
2009-02-09, 18:54
spiff Wrote:so exactly the same as imdb....Which leaves us XBMC users where? No imdb, not tmdb? What can we do?
2009-02-09, 19:12
Don't see a reason not to stay with tmdb. Even if they want to commercially sell the info someday I don't think they will forbid scraping/grabbing for non-commercial use - at least I would hope so. Would be quite ballsy to let the users fill their site and then afterwards change the terms of use to not allow scraping.
2009-02-09, 19:58
ashlar Wrote:Which leaves us XBMC users where? No imdb, not tmdb? What can we do?I think you miss understood what he was replying to.
2009-02-09, 23:22
As far as I'm aware, the content available at themoviedb.org is licensed to others under the CC-by-NC license v3:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
I agree that they need to clean up their site somewhat in this regard. When you add a movie you get a page that states:
This is complicated by the fact that the links that the above quote contains are broken and, when fixed (replace ?page= with /), lead to pages written in german. Clearly there needs to be some work done to remedy this and make it clear to all contributors exactly what they're contributing too.
To address what theophile brought up on their forums:
In either case, you cannot take content from IMDb.com, or any other site and contribute it to TheMovieDB.org unless:
1. You own the copyright to it.
2. The license that the content is under allows it.
Simple as that. The IMDb data, therefore, only allows option 1, unless for whatever reason you can show it to be not covered by copyright law.
It looks like travis needs some work to tidy up the licensing problems. I'll contact him personally and see if there's anything we (team xbmc) can do to help in this regard.
Cheers,
Jonathan
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
I agree that they need to clean up their site somewhat in this regard. When you add a movie you get a page that states:
Quote:Thank you for helping us to extend our movie database. All information on TMDb is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 License. By adding a new movie you accept the terms of that license. More information can be found in the copyright section.
This is complicated by the fact that the links that the above quote contains are broken and, when fixed (replace ?page= with /), lead to pages written in german. Clearly there needs to be some work done to remedy this and make it clear to all contributors exactly what they're contributing too.
To address what theophile brought up on their forums:
In either case, you cannot take content from IMDb.com, or any other site and contribute it to TheMovieDB.org unless:
1. You own the copyright to it.
2. The license that the content is under allows it.
Simple as that. The IMDb data, therefore, only allows option 1, unless for whatever reason you can show it to be not covered by copyright law.
It looks like travis needs some work to tidy up the licensing problems. I'll contact him personally and see if there's anything we (team xbmc) can do to help in this regard.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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