www.backstage.com: A jury has decided against actor Huong Hoang in her suit against IMDb.
Since 2011, Hoang, whose stage name is Junie Hoang, has been suing IMDb and its parent company Amazon in federal court for what she says was improperly revealing her age in her online profile.
The civil trial started in federal court in Seattle April 8. On Wednesday, the jury heard closing arguments and received their final instructions from judge Marsha Pechman. They rendered a verdict in favor of IMDb on Thursday, deciding that the website didn't violate its legal obligations to the 41-year-old actor.
8 comments:
This seems like a silly lawsuit. If IMDB didn't publish her actual age it would have been published elsewhere. Also if you're career is dependent on people thing you are younger then you actually are, you might want to rethink you're career choices. Good actors are judged on their acting ability not their age. If she not getting jobs because of her "age" she might want to really think about if it's re age that's hampering her career. I'm not saying there is no ageism in Hollywood, I'm just saying that it is not something to start a lawsuit over. There are to many petty lawsuits in the world.
Was she just looking for some big pay out for IMDv ?Having up her birthdate just seems so trivial. There are so many important cases going on out there. Also actors aren't only casted based on their age, it also depends on how young/old they look, their makeup, AND THEIR TALENT!!
She seemed a little desperate, I'm glad IMDB won. Although it would be quite spiteful of them if they request legal fees, I imagine it is quite a lot for her, and not all that much to a company like Amazon. I wonder if that bit in the article was true about her requesting a review of her information because then it kind of seems like she brought this on herself. I was surprised at the comments on the on the article though (on the actual website not here). A lot of people seem to think she should have won and I just don't see a good reason. Especially if that bit about it kind of being her fault is true
I can understand why Hoang would think that suing Amazon for this would make sense...in the way a kid says they'll sue somebody for something. It's not really worth a lawsuit, especially because there was no fault. If anything, Hoang shouldn't have brought up the lawsuit because she lied about her age several times before, which is illegal to begin with, and then there's the fact that there was no malicious intent behind correcting her age. As much as I hate to see big corporations win, Hoang needs to think before suing major companies over publicly available information.
This does seem a little silly, but at the same time this is an industry where age and appearance matters a lot for many. At the same time, IMDB usually does not lie about facts about the actors on the profiles so she really does not have legitimate argument. If she did not want to be in the public eye, she should not be a performer. I am glad IMDB won as well, because if every actor was complaining about websites telling the truth then, what would happen if a website lied about an actors age? something to think about.
I absolutely know that the entertainment business if one where appearance matters a whole lot, and a job could be lost just because you just don't "look right" for the part. I'm sure that there are also some parts of the entertainment industry that are ageist and having your age be well known could I guess be detrimental to your career. However, at the same time, Hollywood is FULL of actors who play characters who are 10 or even 15 years younger than the actor's age. It also seems silly to me to fight against something being made public when it is already fully available in the public record. Sure, someone may have to dig a little harder to find it than IMDB, but it is still public knowledge and publicly accessible. Furthermore, something that I didn't know about this case before I read this article was that the reason IMDB published her real age is because she posted a fake age, and then demanded that IMDB review its files to make sure that her fake birth date was valid... so of course, they found out that the date was incorrect, and so corrected it. Maybe this is me being optimistic about being able to change the industry, but it seems like behavior like what she tried to do is part of what perpetuates the problem in Hollywood.
America is fascinated by lawsuits. It seems that even if I was breaking into a house and I tripped on a garden hose in the backyard, I could sue the homeowner. I agree that this is a silly lawsuit. Maybe if the actor hadn't told IMDB her real age then they wouldnt have posted it. It's true that your information on the Internet is free for everyone to see, but only if you put it on there in the first place.
Well, Acting had a lot to do with age I suppose. The older you are the more doors to roles are closed. However, the lawsuit is an entirely different issue all together. The Woman in question is trying to sue a company for publicizing the truth? If she were to win such a lawsuit I'm sure others would have made far more reasonable cases for suit about what is published on their IMDb and/or Wikipedia pages. A lawsuit like this cannot be taken seriously by the court, it would only make room for so many others like it. What a silly lawsuit.
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