

IMDb orders imdbAPI to shut down or else   - bojanbabic
http://imdbapi.com/

======
fileoffset
That is rubbish!

imdbapi.com could refer to, like he said in his response, literally thousands
of different acronyms, such as the new website title: "Integration Manager
Design Baseline Automated Physical Inventory" - amusing ;)

Who's to say it isn't for an Instant Messaging Database API service?

"The disclaimer you have added doesn’t change this result. First, ordinary
consumers don’t read fine print and so the potential for confusion is
unaffected. Second, even a prominent disclaimer doesn’t allow you to adopt a
competing product’s name as your own."

This is also rubbish as he clearly isn't adopting a competing products name as
his own.

IANAL but I think so long as he isn't using the IMDB name or logo, they
haven't got a leg to stand on. Having their trademark somewhere within the
domain name is not enough.

------
jsilence
This hurts regarding the history of IMDB which had large portions contributed
by volunteers in the early days:

"Users were invited to contribute data which they may have collected and
verified, on a volunteer basis, which greatly increased the amount and types
of data to be stored or for which sections needed to be added. As the site
thereby grew in content exponentially,"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imdb#History_before_website>

So IMDB is a community effort that has been commercialized.

Would be nice if the current 'owners' would respect the history of their own
site and play nice with another community effort in the same field.

~~~
mbitca
While I agree they don't particularly play nice with the community, they do
still let people download the raw data for non-commercial use at least. Not
that they promote that fact much. <http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/>

------
tomekEl
We all know that big brand names has early access to new released domain names
to protect their name and avoid domain squatting - they pay premium for that
and this sounds fair. But its nothing illegal in having imdbxxx.com - which
btw is still available. I might be wrong but if this is the case - imdb (in
this case) should make sure that they own all domains , which might be
associated with their brand (like imdbapi.com for example). Not securing them
and requesting free transfer from anyone who dared to buy one isn't anything
else but corporate bulling.

------
recroad
How does this thread not have any comments?

I'm no lawyer, but I hope you get someone to help you out. However, given this
case of giant corporation versus hardworking developer, the former usually
wins.

~~~
bojanbabic
I was hoping same as well

------
nivertech
All following domains should be handed to Amazon too:

    
    
        I.com
        IM.com
        IMD.com
        IMD.BE
        IMDBA.com
        IMDBAP.com
        AYEMDEEBEE.com
    

;)

------
nathan_f77
Sorry, I personally don't think you have a case. IMDb is a very strong
trademark in my mind, I don't think you could get away with using it at the
start of your domain name.

~~~
stumacd
Not having used the API, but seeing that does use movie information (using
rotten tomatoes). I think that it's going to be difficult to claim fair use of
quite a distinctive acronym in the same realm.

Paying a lawyer for an hour to confirm this will save the author of the API
time and effort.

Rename it and move on, be your own brand. There's no need to coattail if you
have a great product.

------
enigmabomb
Pick a better acronym if you want to have a shot at winning.

~~~
fileoffset
My suggestion was:

I Must Design Better API

