Internet Movie Database

Large film/movie database claiming:

• 425,000+ titles
• 1,700,000 + filmographies of cast and crew members
• Films from 1891 to Present
• Foreign and independent movies, television movies and shows, new and future releases, and more

Information on database structure can be found here: http://us.imdb.com/Licensing/structure.html. Individual files are gzipped an in a bespoke text format structure for which standard libraries exist e.g. IMDbPy.

Information on history and development (including 'enclosure') on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internet_Movie_Database

Openness: NOT OPEN

• License: Not open. From http://www.imdb.com/interfaces.html:

  "Please refer to the copyright/license information listed in each file for instructions on allowed usage. The data is NOT FREE although it may be used for free in specific circumstances."

  See also information on:

  • http://imdb.com/help/show_article?conditions
  • http://imdb.com/Licensing/FAQ.html

• Access: Good.

  • www: yes. (website itself).
  • api: no.
  • bulk: yes. See http://www.imdb.com/interfaces.html which provides links to plain text db dumps along with tools for manipulating the dumps. Several people have built interfaces e.g.
  • http://www.python.org/pypi/IMDb/0.1.2
  • http://imdbpy.sourceforge.net/