This is an announcement for customers of the IMDb bulk data available via FTP.
We are pleased to announce, starting today IMDb datasets are now available in Amazon S3 via an HTTPS link. Using the new interface, customers can bulk-access IMDb title and name data.
For details on the S3 solution, file format and access guidelines, see www.imdb.com/interfaces.
In our continued effort to best serve our Contributors, we are streamlining the datasets and making them available in a more useful and structured format in S3. Notably:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/ftp.imdb.com/pub/frozendata
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movies/database/frozendata
If you are not an IMDb Contributor and wish to obtain IMDb content for commercial use, we offer a content license. The license grants you access to our content via an XML web service, plus the right to use the content in your product or service. If that interests you, please email licensing@imdb.com.
If you have any questions or concerns, please share your feedback in this thread.
Thank you for your continued support.
We are pleased to announce, starting today IMDb datasets are now available in Amazon S3 via an HTTPS link. Using the new interface, customers can bulk-access IMDb title and name data.
For details on the S3 solution, file format and access guidelines, see www.imdb.com/interfaces.
In our continued effort to best serve our Contributors, we are streamlining the datasets and making them available in a more useful and structured format in S3. Notably:
- Data refresh frequency is now daily (previously weekly).
- IMDb title and name identifiers are included in all the files for ease of matching and linking back to IMDb.
- The files are in tab separated values (TSV) format.
- The sets of data we provide are updated to only include the essential ones that help with matching and linking to an IMDb title or name.
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/ftp.imdb.com/pub/frozendata
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movies/database/frozendata
If you are not an IMDb Contributor and wish to obtain IMDb content for commercial use, we offer a content license. The license grants you access to our content via an XML web service, plus the right to use the content in your product or service. If that interests you, please email licensing@imdb.com.
If you have any questions or concerns, please share your feedback in this thread.
Thank you for your continued support.
sv, Official Rep
Posted 3 years ago
I have no issue paying to download IMDb datasets for my own personnel use.
What I do have a problem with is moving to a paid model that does not support the same 40+, frequently updated, datasets that have been provided for free for so many years. I think IMDb need to re-address this decision as it will affect people like myself.
I download and insert all datasets into a MySQL database. This has allowed me to develop specific applications and just data mine (discovering new uses for the data). I've taught myself SQL from data-mining IMDb data.
What I do have a problem with is moving to a paid model that does not support the same 40+, frequently updated, datasets that have been provided for free for so many years. I think IMDb need to re-address this decision as it will affect people like myself.
I download and insert all datasets into a MySQL database. This has allowed me to develop specific applications and just data mine (discovering new uses for the data). I've taught myself SQL from data-mining IMDb data.
This matches what I do with it, except additionally I am moving toward mining the data for non-profit academic research. I agree the most disappointing thing is the extremely limited data this seems to be turning into.
On a curiousity-note, would love to connect with you and see what you are doing with the data.
On a curiousity-note, would love to connect with you and see what you are doing with the data.
Col Needham, Official Rep
Thanks for the feedback so far on this thread. Please do continue to post and we will try to take as much as possible into account. This post answers some of the questions raised and there will be further updates based on the next round of feedback.
On the S3 access issues, we now have a working prototype of a system which can make the same S3 data available to you via HTTP from IMDb directly without requiring any S3 registration and free from any possibility of AWS charges. Please watch for an announcement as we convert this into production code. The only thing needed will be an ordinary IMDb user account attached to a valid email address. We still intend to also make the data available via S3 for those people who find the AWS access tools more convenient and can stay within the free tier of AWS.
On the general data availability, we are adding the AKA titles to the basic data set accessible to everyone. Longer term, we are looking at the possibility of daily diff files for at least some of the data in the basic set.
On the point about contributors, we are looking at extending the range of data available via the http solution based on your contribution history and volume. For top contributors and those people using the data to help us clean it via bulk corrections, this is likely to extend far beyond the current set of data even on the FTP site. It is not our intention to deprive access to the data by those people who have genuinely helped to build it over the years and who want to continue to improve IMDb. We aim to also be able to grant specific permissions to specific customers for specific extra subsets of data as required on a case by case basis. This latter part may take some time to become a fully formed solution so please bear with us.
The background to all of this is that there is a huge multi-year technology migration project which is nearing completion at IMDb. We have too many complicated old systems around which have been slowing the overall pace of development (I add a bit more detail to this on https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/why-doesnt-imdb-staff-ever-consult-with-the-contributor-base...). The move to the new technology has been providing the opportunity to look at the way we operate different parts of the IMDb service. One of the oldest software systems is the one which publishes the FTP data, and we will soon no longer to even be able to generate the .list files once the final pieces of the old IMDb system are decommissioned; at least not without re-writing all of the publication software to connect to the new system and produce an extremely difficult to manipulate text file format which was designed 27 years ago and has not changed in 21 years. Instead, we decided that it would be better to publish the data via a modern system (S3 and soon over https) in a modern format which can be more easily parsed. The other problem with FTP is that we have no idea how many people are using the data and for what purpose, nor do we know what additional things they may want from the data. From feedback over the years, we knew some of your requirements already, notably (a) access to the title and name constant data (b) an easier to parse format (c) information to help in matching other catalogs to IMDb (d) more frequent updates. We found ourselves having to guess the remaining requirements until we decided the best way forward was to move the data to a new location within the FTP sites, post an announcement on Get Satisfaction (this thread) and then wait to gather feedback before replying and figuring out what steps to take next (this reply).
We hope this helps. We have plenty to be working upon in the meantime, and we will follow-up as we deliver parts of the above.
Col
Founder & CEO, IMDb.com.
On the S3 access issues, we now have a working prototype of a system which can make the same S3 data available to you via HTTP from IMDb directly without requiring any S3 registration and free from any possibility of AWS charges. Please watch for an announcement as we convert this into production code. The only thing needed will be an ordinary IMDb user account attached to a valid email address. We still intend to also make the data available via S3 for those people who find the AWS access tools more convenient and can stay within the free tier of AWS.
On the general data availability, we are adding the AKA titles to the basic data set accessible to everyone. Longer term, we are looking at the possibility of daily diff files for at least some of the data in the basic set.
On the point about contributors, we are looking at extending the range of data available via the http solution based on your contribution history and volume. For top contributors and those people using the data to help us clean it via bulk corrections, this is likely to extend far beyond the current set of data even on the FTP site. It is not our intention to deprive access to the data by those people who have genuinely helped to build it over the years and who want to continue to improve IMDb. We aim to also be able to grant specific permissions to specific customers for specific extra subsets of data as required on a case by case basis. This latter part may take some time to become a fully formed solution so please bear with us.
The background to all of this is that there is a huge multi-year technology migration project which is nearing completion at IMDb. We have too many complicated old systems around which have been slowing the overall pace of development (I add a bit more detail to this on https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/why-doesnt-imdb-staff-ever-consult-with-the-contributor-base...). The move to the new technology has been providing the opportunity to look at the way we operate different parts of the IMDb service. One of the oldest software systems is the one which publishes the FTP data, and we will soon no longer to even be able to generate the .list files once the final pieces of the old IMDb system are decommissioned; at least not without re-writing all of the publication software to connect to the new system and produce an extremely difficult to manipulate text file format which was designed 27 years ago and has not changed in 21 years. Instead, we decided that it would be better to publish the data via a modern system (S3 and soon over https) in a modern format which can be more easily parsed. The other problem with FTP is that we have no idea how many people are using the data and for what purpose, nor do we know what additional things they may want from the data. From feedback over the years, we knew some of your requirements already, notably (a) access to the title and name constant data (b) an easier to parse format (c) information to help in matching other catalogs to IMDb (d) more frequent updates. We found ourselves having to guess the remaining requirements until we decided the best way forward was to move the data to a new location within the FTP sites, post an announcement on Get Satisfaction (this thread) and then wait to gather feedback before replying and figuring out what steps to take next (this reply).
We hope this helps. We have plenty to be working upon in the meantime, and we will follow-up as we deliver parts of the above.
Col
Founder & CEO, IMDb.com.
Thank you Mr Needham for this much welcome answer, which is somewhat reassuring.
V.
V.
Thanks, for your feedback, Col Needham. I'm pleased to know that you have big plans. I hope the things of the future wind up having more merits than demerits.
Thank you for responding, at least the timing and some of the motivation for this is clearer.
However, without the ability to answer the simple question "who is in this move", the data is essentially useless to me.
Sad day for imdb, when it switches from "here is some awesome data, we are excited to see what you do with it" to "Convince us why we should let you see our data"
Reluctantly I am switching to another data provider, themoviedb.org
However, without the ability to answer the simple question "who is in this move", the data is essentially useless to me.
Sad day for imdb, when it switches from "here is some awesome data, we are excited to see what you do with it" to "Convince us why we should let you see our data"
Reluctantly I am switching to another data provider, themoviedb.org
“
Sad day for imdb, when it switches from "here is some awesome data, we are excited to see what you do with it" to "Convince us why we should let you see our data"
“
You said it best, right there.
There are 2 main ways to "consume" IMDb data (files): 1 - The Static Mode: People already have an use for the data and go there and grab it for their usual needs; 2 - The Discovery/Explorer/Research Mode: people get some data, and then detect some patterns, get/try different data (files) and see some more patterns, get new ideas and connections, test theories, invent new uses for the data, detect errors/inconsistencies, get yet another batch of different files to retest other hypothesis...
While the first type of Users is perfectly fine and has an important place (plus, those same Users could already have been or they have the potential to become a type 2 User) the real "power" of (IMDb) data use is in the 2nd type.
IMDb wants to categorize/"lock" people in "typical", static/monolithic, use cases (which they can't because there is no such thing, when one gets access to such a rich and diverse quality data – the richer the data the more unlimited are the possibilities) without the understanding that is in exploration the true power and possibility of the unimpeded access people enjoyed until now. This is also the mode where more errors and problems with the data are bound to be discovered and, thus, reported/corrected.
So, they are (re)enabling type 1 Users (which is good), but type 2 Users (where the true value, for both IMDb and the Users/Contributors, really lies) are shackled and constrained in typical use-case boxes that has little or no real use to them (because the most desirable "consumer" of data, for IMDb, is the one that has no [pre}set idea what she/he'll do tomorrow with that data; the ones that ask themselves "What if...?" and then go about checking that out). And these Type 2 are also the main Contributors (if not to IMDb directly, at least indirectly) to the Film/TV community. They make all of us appreciate and understand all the interconnected nature of the art form. And that'll always return, in the end, to IMDb, in one form or another, because the more (quality) information and the bigger the community, the more people will turn to IMDb (because is one of the best, more popular, places to know more). Curtailing, impeding, Type 2 users, in any way, is a substantial self-inflicted wound (the proverbial "shot in the foot").
In spite of building one of the most successful stories of data gathering/maintenance in history they seem to lack a basic understanding of how this was achieved, how the whole direct/indirect feedback loop works, how the ample availability of their (almost) raw data was like seed(s) for fertile ground(s) -- where they could/would reap the benefits, severalfold, later, down the line, directly or indirectly. This kind of decisions seems to blissfully ignore how IMDb arrived at this point in time.
This is akin to the Captain of the Titanic failing to acknowledge the “invisible” 90% of the iceberg that lied below the line.
(Edited)
I don't think I can or ever will understand or be able to wrap my head around this line of logic.
We created this awesome movie database, lets make an API
We made this awesome API, lets give everyone access to all the data!
20 years pass
Now that we've given everyone all the data for 20 years, and the API is old
lets update it!
People can't be using ALL our data right? No way that people are actually using all the data we provided them over the course of 20 years just because we can't see analytics for it. Not possible Nope.
Well just remove access to 9/10ths the data then.Its fine if you guys change the format and work to update the way its parsed, removed redundancy etc, I am ALL for that, trust me you. But plain and simple, not giving me something I already use, is going to destroy so many projects, and development ecosystems, I don't think that we have a number that could go high enough to represent the amount you are killing by removing access to so much of the data. You're literally killing an un-ending amount of (infinity) projects.
(Edited)
On the point about contributors, we are looking at extending the range of data available via the http solution based on your contribution history and volume.
We aim to also be able to grant specific permissions to specific customers for specific extra subsets of data as required on a case by case basis. This latter part may take some time to become a fully formed solution so please bear with us
Any update(s) on the above?
sv, Official Rep
We are currently working on asolution for data access via HTTP endpoint as an alternative to thedirect AWS S3 access. As part of this solution, we are also looking into a contributor exclusive solution, providing extended datasets based on a person’scontribution history and volume.
Given these developments, we are postponing the shutdown of the IMDb FTP sites to November 7, 2017.
Please stay tuned for more updates. Thanks!
Please stay tuned for more updates. Thanks!
(Edited)
My takeaway from Col Needham's recent post was that the primary issue standing between providing complete data and not was the significant development effort to make the data available from the new systems.
But now, It sounds like from this post that IMDB will have the logic in place to provide fuller datasets, and will provide them to contributors.
Now it appears to be purely that IMDB wishes simply to prevent the public from accessing the collected data for free.
This appears to no longer be about development efforts, rather it appears to be exclusively about cutting off free data.
Frankly, IMDB needs to get its story straight. If the data is in fact available, and more complete data sets would be there for us ... if we provide IMDB with free (aka donated) labor, then the entire premise of Col's justification looks shaky .. at best.
I hope you guys come to your senses, but I no longer believe we are being told the real story here, so I have now completed moving my data sources away from IMDB, and will donate both time and money elsewhere.
I've enjoyed using IMDB's data since well before it sold out to Amazon, and its sad to see so many years of cooperation trampled by this ill considered project.
But now, It sounds like from this post that IMDB will have the logic in place to provide fuller datasets, and will provide them to contributors.
Now it appears to be purely that IMDB wishes simply to prevent the public from accessing the collected data for free.
This appears to no longer be about development efforts, rather it appears to be exclusively about cutting off free data.
Frankly, IMDB needs to get its story straight. If the data is in fact available, and more complete data sets would be there for us ... if we provide IMDB with free (aka donated) labor, then the entire premise of Col's justification looks shaky .. at best.
I hope you guys come to your senses, but I no longer believe we are being told the real story here, so I have now completed moving my data sources away from IMDB, and will donate both time and money elsewhere.
I've enjoyed using IMDB's data since well before it sold out to Amazon, and its sad to see so many years of cooperation trampled by this ill considered project.
Thanks for postponing the shutdown, IMDb staff. We can at least grant y'all that.
(Edited)
Due to my notification settings, I was informed: "Nobody liked your comment". That's kind of funny like a pun. Thanks, Nobody.
With the revised shutdown date now days away, I note that no promised updates have not occured.
Really a shame to see an organization lose its way.
Really a shame to see an organization lose its way.
I can foresee the IMDb contributor base potentially splintering into "patriots" and "loyalists". I may be no patriot, but the loyalists are really starting to disgust me.
Chris H., Employee
Hello,
Thank you for your continued feedback. As we review your feedback and work on the HTTP solutions described by Col and sv above, we are revising the shutdown date of the IMDb FTP sites to December 28, 2017.
More updates will be provided closer to that time. Thank you.
ChrisSounds good, I guess... for now.
WTF?! Time is running out!
Yes, I'd also like to hear more updates. Thank you.
Count me in as well...
Chris H., Employee
Hello,
We are still on track for the FTP sites to stop being updated after December 28. Before that date I will share information about the datasets published on S3, addressing the feedback we have received about requiring an S3 account to access those datasets.
Thank you for your continued patience,
Chris.
We are still on track for the FTP sites to stop being updated after December 28. Before that date I will share information about the datasets published on S3, addressing the feedback we have received about requiring an S3 account to access those datasets.
Thank you for your continued patience,
Chris.
I have been watching these comments, and I was hoping you would address the failures with the actors file.
You haven't updated the actors file on the ftp site(s) in almost three months now. It still has a date of September 22nd. Were you guys aware of that?
Will there be any opportunity at all to get a single consistent picture of the last data handoff before you go live?
And are you seriously saying you are making significant changes to your operational systems between Christmas and New Year's day? And your operations staff is on board with this plan?
What possible motive is there for not saying which of the next few days: Dec 20, 21, 22, 26, or 27 you will be communicating? Those are the only 5 days that are not holidays or weekends.
If you tried to schedule a riskier date in the entire year to convert, or one more likely to cause problems, I think you have chosen the second worst date, with the 29th also being a Friday before a 3 day holiday weekend during Christmas-New Years being slightly worse.
You haven't updated the actors file on the ftp site(s) in almost three months now. It still has a date of September 22nd. Were you guys aware of that?
Will there be any opportunity at all to get a single consistent picture of the last data handoff before you go live?
And are you seriously saying you are making significant changes to your operational systems between Christmas and New Year's day? And your operations staff is on board with this plan?
What possible motive is there for not saying which of the next few days: Dec 20, 21, 22, 26, or 27 you will be communicating? Those are the only 5 days that are not holidays or weekends.
If you tried to schedule a riskier date in the entire year to convert, or one more likely to cause problems, I think you have chosen the second worst date, with the 29th also being a Friday before a 3 day holiday weekend during Christmas-New Years being slightly worse.
(Edited)
It's going to be a busy next two weeks.
not so much for me, I've moved my data sources over to tmdb, as far as I can tell i mostly lose minor uncredited roles plus the mpaa rating, everything else i used i have via APIs rather than parsing a download file, so Im happy.
I still harbor resentment that imdb made me do this, and is so uncommunicative. It is clear that imdb has no respect whatsoever for people using these files, their unwillingness to communicate their plans speaks volumes for the disregard they have for users here.
You would think a company that built its data on the back of volunteers and public submission of data would see the value in giving back, but it appears they are in full amazon mode now. Petty, overworked, and customers are $.
I wonder would Col have done it the same again, if he could do it over. Hes probably covered by a non-disparagement, so I doubt he can really respond as he might like to.
Anyway, failing to provide the promised data, and witholding the information about what is changing next tuesday is pretty much par for the course for the new amazon.
I still harbor resentment that imdb made me do this, and is so uncommunicative. It is clear that imdb has no respect whatsoever for people using these files, their unwillingness to communicate their plans speaks volumes for the disregard they have for users here.
You would think a company that built its data on the back of volunteers and public submission of data would see the value in giving back, but it appears they are in full amazon mode now. Petty, overworked, and customers are $.
I wonder would Col have done it the same again, if he could do it over. Hes probably covered by a non-disparagement, so I doubt he can really respond as he might like to.
Anyway, failing to provide the promised data, and witholding the information about what is changing next tuesday is pretty much par for the course for the new amazon.
So the data dumps in their current state...is that final too? It's missing a ton of information we've been relying on.
@Gardner von Holt
I've nearly moved over to tmdb but it's been a bit complicated trying to get data dumps from them (though possible). I was wondering, are you recreating their entire database or just querying as needed? I'm writing a script to download and update a database in-place for tmdb and thought I'd check if others are doing it too.
@Gardner von Holt
I've nearly moved over to tmdb but it's been a bit complicated trying to get data dumps from them (though possible). I was wondering, are you recreating their entire database or just querying as needed? I'm writing a script to download and update a database in-place for tmdb and thought I'd check if others are doing it too.
(Edited)
No the API actually models my use case far better, as I watch a movie i have not see before I make api calls and add a small subset of the new movie's data to my local database.
It sounds like a very interesting use case. Thanks for the feedback (I just need to learn to master APIs!)
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Flat files/data sets availability ?.
Hi,
Could some IMDb staff confirm when will the last batch of flat files/data sets be issued and made available on the FTP sites?
The Berlin one still mentions 2017-09-10, a Col Needham post mentions November, 7, and the latest set available was issued on November 24...
Thank you in advance for some clarification of the roadmap!
V.
Hi,
Could some IMDb staff confirm when will the last batch of flat files/data sets be issued and made available on the FTP sites?
The Berlin one still mentions 2017-09-10, a Col Needham post mentions November, 7, and the latest set available was issued on November 24...
Thank you in advance for some clarification of the roadmap!
V.
Unless mistaken, the FTP site on Berlin Freie Universität is now dead (it prompts me for username/password.
I received no answer to my question above (I was only indicated that the question was forwarded to the "FTP team")
That is the end of a 27 y old story, which started at the university of Cardiff, building the biggest film-related database with contributions from all over the world, but in return, making the data available on those FTP servers for free.
Col N. repeated still recently that they are working on a http solution, on top of the S3 service proposed on Amazon infrastructure, which is rather complex, above all is not free and last but not least: partial.
And now FTP is closed.
Hey you guys, obviously, you have a vacant project manager position (I mean: a real IT project manager). I can make myself available if you wish.
Otherwise, sayonara, IMDb.
I received no answer to my question above (I was only indicated that the question was forwarded to the "FTP team")
That is the end of a 27 y old story, which started at the university of Cardiff, building the biggest film-related database with contributions from all over the world, but in return, making the data available on those FTP servers for free.
Col N. repeated still recently that they are working on a http solution, on top of the S3 service proposed on Amazon infrastructure, which is rather complex, above all is not free and last but not least: partial.
And now FTP is closed.
Hey you guys, obviously, you have a vacant project manager position (I mean: a real IT project manager). I can make myself available if you wish.
Otherwise, sayonara, IMDb.
Vincent, I am able to access both the German and Finland ftp sites still as of 8-Dec from the USA
Thank god I started my post with "Unless mistaken"!!
But I confirm, from France, I am prompted a user/pwd on Berlin and connection with the finnish site keeps getting reinitialized.
I will give it another try later.
But I confirm, from France, I am prompted a user/pwd on Berlin and connection with the finnish site keeps getting reinitialized.
I will give it another try later.
(Edited)
I have been accessing the Amazon S3 for a few months and am now getting "Access Denied" from the S3 bucket, started this week. I see no one upset here, is this just me? How do I resolve this?
Chris H., Employee
Hello Robert,
Is there specific data or tables that your are seeing this issue with?
Can you access earlier versions of the tables by using an earlier date in the path?
To help us track down if something has changed, can you tell us the exact date when you stopped being able to access the datasets on S3?
Many thanks,
Chris.
Is there specific data or tables that your are seeing this issue with?
Can you access earlier versions of the tables by using an earlier date in the path?
To help us track down if something has changed, can you tell us the exact date when you stopped being able to access the datasets on S3?
Many thanks,
Chris.
I found the issue. It started last week intermittently. I was getting all of the object keys in a list and downloading those containing "current". There is a 1000 object limit on the ListObjectRequest and I suppose you recently went over that limit. I added a prefix to my request and now get a list of objects with "documents/v1/current/" as prefix.
Thank you for your response.
Thank you for your response.
"This more robust and reliable solution will replace the IMDb FTP sites, which will be retired on December 28, 2017."
How about actors.list.gz? It is not updated after Sep 22 2017?
-timon
How about actors.list.gz? It is not updated after Sep 22 2017?
-timon
They're making off like bandits with a whole lot of customer-generated content.
Who own this content? I have not red any "small print" carefully (att all).
Chris H., Employee
Thank you for the continued feedback.
Earlier in this thread, Col referred to a prototype of a system which can make the same S3 data available to you via HTTP from IMDb directly without requiring any S3 registration and free from any possibility of AWS charges. This system will require an ordinary IMDb user account attached to a valid email address. However, this system is not yet quite ready for production so to help address some of the concerns raised about the 'Requester Pays' access via S3, today we activated an https entry point to provide access to the basic datasets. This https location is here, https://datasets.imdbws.com/ The page http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/ has been updated with this information.
We are finalizing the extended datasets and access model and I will post an update about that as soon as it is ready.
The final build of the data that gets published to the FTP mirrors occurred yesterday so those mirrors contain the final FTP snapshot. While the data on the FTP servers will not be updated going forward, we will not remove the data for at least the next few weeks so people who need that data can still download it.
Earlier in this thread, Col referred to a prototype of a system which can make the same S3 data available to you via HTTP from IMDb directly without requiring any S3 registration and free from any possibility of AWS charges. This system will require an ordinary IMDb user account attached to a valid email address. However, this system is not yet quite ready for production so to help address some of the concerns raised about the 'Requester Pays' access via S3, today we activated an https entry point to provide access to the basic datasets. This https location is here, https://datasets.imdbws.com/ The page http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/ has been updated with this information.
We are finalizing the extended datasets and access model and I will post an update about that as soon as it is ready.
The final build of the data that gets published to the FTP mirrors occurred yesterday so those mirrors contain the final FTP snapshot. While the data on the FTP servers will not be updated going forward, we will not remove the data for at least the next few weeks so people who need that data can still download it.
A first quick look at title.basics.tsv.gz is very promising, and much more satisfactory than the former FTP offer.
Could you please state the charset used to published the text files?
Could you please state the charset used to published the text files?
Chris H., Employee
Hello Vincent,
The files are in the UTF-8 character set. I have pushed out an update to the http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/ page to add that to the file details section.
Best regards,
Chris.
The files are in the UTF-8 character set. I have pushed out an update to the http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/ page to add that to the file details section.
Best regards,
Chris.
My quick look at title.akas.tsv.gz suggests it is UTF-8 - tt0000008,5 is Cyrillic and looks sensible, emacs reports that the underlying file was UTF-8 and displays the characters correctly.
That Cyrillic aka title does not appear in the aka-titles.list.gz file on the FTP site.
It looks to me as if the new system is including data that the old system could not handle.
That Cyrillic aka title does not appear in the aka-titles.list.gz file on the FTP site.
It looks to me as if the new system is including data that the old system could not handle.
The latest and final FTP snapshot is online now. But once again there is no updated actors.list! It's still from September 22. That's very annoying and embarrasing - 3 months should have been time enough to fix this problem. At least the final dump should contain recent files only.
By the way, on the German FTP server there is a new directory "frozendata". The files are now available both in
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movie... and
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movie..., but I guess that in the long run, only "frozendata" will remain.
By the way, on the German FTP server there is a new directory "frozendata". The files are now available both in
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movie... and
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movie..., but I guess that in the long run, only "frozendata" will remain.
Thanks for providing the HTTPS interface. It's really appreciated.
Something I don't understand is about the genre information. For all the movies that have more than 3 genres, only the first 3 in alphabetical order are reported.
For example for "Dunkirk" (tt5013056) the War and Thriller ones are omitted.
And Dunkirk really is a "War" film... I cannot get the reason for this limitation.
In fact, also imdb.com has this problem. The top bar lists only 3 genres, but then in the "Genres:" tag has all of them.
I would be also really great if you can add also the "Country" and the "Keywords" information. This info is really important to categorize movies. Without it I have to resort to scraping your site, that is something I would like to avoid.
Thanks,
Luca
Something I don't understand is about the genre information. For all the movies that have more than 3 genres, only the first 3 in alphabetical order are reported.
For example for "Dunkirk" (tt5013056) the War and Thriller ones are omitted.
And Dunkirk really is a "War" film... I cannot get the reason for this limitation.
In fact, also imdb.com has this problem. The top bar lists only 3 genres, but then in the "Genres:" tag has all of them.
I would be also really great if you can add also the "Country" and the "Keywords" information. This info is really important to categorize movies. Without it I have to resort to scraping your site, that is something I would like to avoid.
Thanks,
Luca
This is my first look at the data IMDb are now providing and I'm extremely disappointed. Maybe I've just been spoiled for the last 20 years with the depth and quality of data IMDb have historically provided. Sad to say, I foresee lots of screen scrapping in my future :-(
Col Needham, Official Rep
From our 19 August update:
"On the point about contributors, we are looking at extending the range of data available via the http solution based on your contribution history and volume. For top contributors and those people using the data to help us clean it via bulk corrections, this is likely to extend far beyond the current set of data even on the FTP site. It is not our intention to deprive access to the data by those people who have genuinely helped to build it over the years and who want to continue to improve IMDb. We aim to also be able to grant specific permissions to specific customers for specific extra subsets of data as required on a case by case basis. This latter part may take some time to become a fully formed solution so please bear with us. "
"On the point about contributors, we are looking at extending the range of data available via the http solution based on your contribution history and volume. For top contributors and those people using the data to help us clean it via bulk corrections, this is likely to extend far beyond the current set of data even on the FTP site. It is not our intention to deprive access to the data by those people who have genuinely helped to build it over the years and who want to continue to improve IMDb. We aim to also be able to grant specific permissions to specific customers for specific extra subsets of data as required on a case by case basis. This latter part may take some time to become a fully formed solution so please bear with us. "
This doesn't answer the real question that is, why is information being walled off? IMDB's role up until now is that of a repository built up by millions of contributors. Have you guys run out of ways to monetize the data?
It doesn't matter anyways to me as I've moved on and will be contributing data to other, more transparent organizations.
It doesn't matter anyways to me as I've moved on and will be contributing data to other, more transparent organizations.
I've also had my first look at the data that is available. Getting the IMDb IDs is welcome, and the files are much easier to parse. I'd already solved both these problems, but this will be good news for anyone looking at IMDb data for the first time.
However, there are some big gaps in the dataset. There's no way to get the complete cast and crew for a title. There is only the top, above-the-title, "principal" actors, and even then, the role and credit order is missing. The actors file has "known for" data, which is fine, but limited. For example, according to IMDb, Harrison Ford is known for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Witness, Air Force One and The Fugitive. All of these are fine, notable films, but all the Star Wars films are missing, let alone minor works like American Graffiti.
There is no replacement for aka-names, certificates, plot, release-dates, running-times. The crew credits don't qualify contributions the way the old data did. You don't know if a writing credit is the credited screenwriter, or "story by", or the author of the original work for an adapted screenplay.
I'm hopeful that IMDb will decide to fill in the gaps. The alternatives are to scrape IMDb.com or to move to crowdsourced alternatives like tmdb. I'd much rather stay with IMDb, even if it means paying for access.
However, there are some big gaps in the dataset. There's no way to get the complete cast and crew for a title. There is only the top, above-the-title, "principal" actors, and even then, the role and credit order is missing. The actors file has "known for" data, which is fine, but limited. For example, according to IMDb, Harrison Ford is known for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Witness, Air Force One and The Fugitive. All of these are fine, notable films, but all the Star Wars films are missing, let alone minor works like American Graffiti.
There is no replacement for aka-names, certificates, plot, release-dates, running-times. The crew credits don't qualify contributions the way the old data did. You don't know if a writing credit is the credited screenwriter, or "story by", or the author of the original work for an adapted screenplay.
I'm hopeful that IMDb will decide to fill in the gaps. The alternatives are to scrape IMDb.com or to move to crowdsourced alternatives like tmdb. I'd much rather stay with IMDb, even if it means paying for access.
We've been going on about this for months, and their only response is that only top contributors will have access to a separate, more comprehensive dataset.
That and the fact that they want everyone's contact info and names for data dumps tells me that they're not happy about sharing that much anymore.
What they're completely forgetting is that the public shared with them first.
That and the fact that they want everyone's contact info and names for data dumps tells me that they're not happy about sharing that much anymore.
What they're completely forgetting is that the public shared with them first.
David, please try to engage them, and if you are successful, please report back, if I could get a guaranteed source of data I might return as I would prefer the quality here. I attempted to engage the licensing team months ago, and the licensing team returned my initial email, but never actually made any offer as to the pricing. Like you, I was willing to pay, but no one ever named a price.
In the old datasets the primary key was, what I call, the Fully Qualified IMDb Title (FQIT). My entire home library as based on FQIT, which is human readable. FQIT is still supported by IMDb in the .../title/tt9999999/reference page.
In the new datasets, the primary key is TCONST, which is not human readable. Like Hostnames and IP addresses, Hostnames are much easier to remember and more meaningful than the IP address.
I hope IMDb could update title.basics.tsv, or create a new dataset, to relate TCONST (new primary key) with FQIT (old primary key). This would go a long way to addressing mine (and I assume others) issues.
I understand a few FQIT's change over time and have developed processes to address it. Not really an issue for me.
In the new datasets, the primary key is TCONST, which is not human readable. Like Hostnames and IP addresses, Hostnames are much easier to remember and more meaningful than the IP address.
I hope IMDb could update title.basics.tsv, or create a new dataset, to relate TCONST (new primary key) with FQIT (old primary key). This would go a long way to addressing mine (and I assume others) issues.
I understand a few FQIT's change over time and have developed processes to address it. Not really an issue for me.
FQITs (and names) have proven not stable enough to my taste: the accumulated data sets over the years have lead to unreconciled titles by the tens of thousands, and I am only concerned by feature films, as I discard all series and most of TV films and videos.
So I am really glad to be able to peg the data model on TCONST and NCONST, and I am goingg to take this opportunity to create a major evolution of my database. But a dataset reconciling FQIT and TCONST would be welcome for sure!
Nevertheless, I am going to hold it for a while, as the name IDs, NCONST, come up to 95000000, so I guess that IMDB will soon roll out a longer lasting code/structure/syntax.
Among the other side wishes, pending the availability of extended datasets, I would appreciate that https://datasets.imdbws.com/ indicates the update dates of the available sets. But I am sure it will come in time.
So I am really glad to be able to peg the data model on TCONST and NCONST, and I am goingg to take this opportunity to create a major evolution of my database. But a dataset reconciling FQIT and TCONST would be welcome for sure!
Nevertheless, I am going to hold it for a while, as the name IDs, NCONST, come up to 95000000, so I guess that IMDB will soon roll out a longer lasting code/structure/syntax.
Among the other side wishes, pending the availability of extended datasets, I would appreciate that https://datasets.imdbws.com/ indicates the update dates of the available sets. But I am sure it will come in time.
I'm working on the FQIT (title) and FQIN (name) stuff because I want to use the old data as long as possible with my IMDb application that is around for 18 years now (with several updates along the way).
Currently it is (still) not clear which additional data will be available to match the old LIST file content. We've only heared some vague promises.
For the access to the extended dataset I've only provided some minor corrections to the IMDb dataset itself which in my eyes would not qualify me to get access to the full data. On the other hand I'm a developer of an application which is around for years (18 year as I said above) supporting the LIST file format. This should allow me to get full access.
We will see what happens in the future.
I hope to release a new version of my application soon (the new TSV file format is supported as in 'it is read' but not used on the query side yet).
Currently it is (still) not clear which additional data will be available to match the old LIST file content. We've only heared some vague promises.
For the access to the extended dataset I've only provided some minor corrections to the IMDb dataset itself which in my eyes would not qualify me to get access to the full data. On the other hand I'm a developer of an application which is around for years (18 year as I said above) supporting the LIST file format. This should allow me to get full access.
We will see what happens in the future.
I hope to release a new version of my application soon (the new TSV file format is supported as in 'it is read' but not used on the query side yet).
The final build of the data that gets published to the FTP mirrors occurred yesterday so those mirrors contain the final FTP snapshot.
Will that final build be pushed to the FTP site(s)? The dates on most of the files are from several days before that final build. Thanks.
The weekly builds are pushed on Fridays, so I guess we will get them by tomorrow. Hopefully the bug on the actor extraction will have been solved (stuck to September so far)
I hope so too. I stumled over another bug is in the business.list.gz file from 2017-12-22. It contains a publicate entry which causes my application to fail due to an error (duplicate key) thrown by the database.
The error in the business.list.gz file is the title "Akemarropa" (2009) which can be found in line 2.264.972 and also in line 2.265.001.
The error in the business.list.gz file is the title "Akemarropa" (2009) which can be found in line 2.264.972 and also in line 2.265.001.
Thanks for sharing. The FTP files have never been faultless, there has always been a handful of bugs and mistakes. But I have always preferred to correct them manually compared with the millions of available data.
In case you missed it, just note that the Dec 22, 2017 publication is known as the last and final one.
In case you missed it, just note that the Dec 22, 2017 publication is known as the last and final one.
(Edited)
As I only updated my local cache of the IMDb data dumps twice per year, I am just now learning of the retirement of the FTP dumps. I have been using these dumps for years for personal use, mostly for data mining and to create lists of movies that I want to track down on cable.
I've invested a tremendous amount of time in creating code to parse these dumps. At my current bill rate, it's tens of thousands of dollars. As a film enthusiast and software professional, these dumps were a great way to do both at the same time.
While this is very sad for my home, for-fun project, I think it is unfair to think that Amazon is doing this as a money grab. Amazon has world class data infrastructure in AWS, and it's only natural that eventually they would want to move people onto AWS and away from legacy systems that were built in the 90s. I don't know much about the internals of IMDb, but I would expect that the system that created the FTP dumps is at least a couple generations away from the system that feeds IMDb.com.
That said, are there any tutorials on specifically getting IMDb data through S3? I am pretty comfortable with the programming involved, but have not worked with Amazon S3 before. imdb.com/interfaces states the entry point is https://datasets.imdbws.com/, but I need details on how to construct the SOAP or REST calls.
I've invested a tremendous amount of time in creating code to parse these dumps. At my current bill rate, it's tens of thousands of dollars. As a film enthusiast and software professional, these dumps were a great way to do both at the same time.
While this is very sad for my home, for-fun project, I think it is unfair to think that Amazon is doing this as a money grab. Amazon has world class data infrastructure in AWS, and it's only natural that eventually they would want to move people onto AWS and away from legacy systems that were built in the 90s. I don't know much about the internals of IMDb, but I would expect that the system that created the FTP dumps is at least a couple generations away from the system that feeds IMDb.com.
That said, are there any tutorials on specifically getting IMDb data through S3? I am pretty comfortable with the programming involved, but have not worked with Amazon S3 before. imdb.com/interfaces states the entry point is https://datasets.imdbws.com/, but I need details on how to construct the SOAP or REST calls.
The S3 files are accessible using the Amazon AWS SDK, there are sdks for most languages. You can also access 3s files using a tool like Panic's Transmit. Transmit is an ftp tool that also knows how to access files on s3 and the various cloud providers (google, etc.)
You don't need libraries and you certainly don't need to construct the raw HTTP requests yourself. You can use the s3cmd CLI tool: https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/imdb-data-now-available-in-amazon-s3?topic-reply-list[settin...
If you do want to construct the HTTP requests directly, then you need to go read Amazon's S3 docs.
If you do want to construct the HTTP requests directly, then you need to go read Amazon's S3 docs.
@Andrew - thanks for the pointer. s3cmd is straightforward to use and is probably the optimal solution for this problem.
I am working on these files to interface with my personal database.
in ttprincipals.principalCast (and probably the other multivalued fields), I cannot figure out the sorting criteria: it is neither the one displayed on screen, nor the nn9999999 code itself, nor the resulting alphabetical order.
Please, could an IMDB rep clarify this?
Thanks in advance.
in ttprincipals.principalCast (and probably the other multivalued fields), I cannot figure out the sorting criteria: it is neither the one displayed on screen, nor the nn9999999 code itself, nor the resulting alphabetical order.
Please, could an IMDB rep clarify this?
Thanks in advance.
(Edited)
Trying to revive this question, which seems to have remained out of authoritative IMDb attentions.
Chris H., Employee
Hello Vincent,
Where it is available the cast order is the billing order in the end-credits. When we don't have a billing order from the credits then the list is normally ordered alphabetically or by the person's popularity on IMDb. Cast members that are flagged as uncredited are always listed alphabetically.
Best regards,
Chris.
Where it is available the cast order is the billing order in the end-credits. When we don't have a billing order from the credits then the list is normally ordered alphabetically or by the person's popularity on IMDb. Cast members that are flagged as uncredited are always listed alphabetically.
Best regards,
Chris.
Thanks Chris, but I think tou are refering to the sorting criteria on the website, when I am asking about the TSV table.
Let me show you an example with "Day of the Outlaw" (1959) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052724/reference
On the website (/reference view), the cast is sorted as follows:
In the ttprincipals.tsv file, the record is this:
which amounts to have this sorting order:
As you may see, this order does not make any sense: it does not match the display on the website, it is not sorted by nconst (IMDb in the above image), and it is not sorted by alphabetical name or first name.
So I would just like to understand how the data is sorted in the principalCast field. And hopefully and ideally to have it sorted like on the website!
Thanks in advance.
Let me show you an example with "Day of the Outlaw" (1959) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052724/reference
On the website (/reference view), the cast is sorted as follows:
In the ttprincipals.tsv file, the record is this:
which amounts to have this sorting order:
As you may see, this order does not make any sense: it does not match the display on the website, it is not sorted by nconst (IMDb in the above image), and it is not sorted by alphabetical name or first name.
So I would just like to understand how the data is sorted in the principalCast field. And hopefully and ideally to have it sorted like on the website!
Thanks in advance.
Chris H., Employee
Yes, you were right, I was referencing the logic for display order. When the data is extracted from the DB to create the datasets for publishing out, the cast ordering is not being maintained and has no particular ranking order.
If you (and IMDB!) look full cast & crew listing you will see that
Tina Louise is actress
André De Toth is director
Lee E. Wells is writer
Alexander Courage "made" music
Russell Harlan handle cinematography
...
So, title.principals.tsv does NOT tell cast (actors & actress) of movie but some bull shit info that is no useful for anyone. Hey IMBD! Do you have any professionals there?
Tina Louise is actress
André De Toth is director
Lee E. Wells is writer
Alexander Courage "made" music
Russell Harlan handle cinematography
...
So, title.principals.tsv does NOT tell cast (actors & actress) of movie but some bull shit info that is no useful for anyone. Hey IMBD! Do you have any professionals there?
*IMDB
You are right, I only focused on Robert Ryan and Tina Louise who about head the cast. So I think we have a major issue here...
Chris H. and IMDB, what is your logic for title.principals.tsv?
I think the core of the problem is that while a list of the top actors and/or crew is useful for some cases, there really is no replacement for the credits that were available in the old FTP data.
So for example, if you wanted the cast list for this film, Day of the Outlaw, you would go to actors.list and actresses.list and build a list of anybody who had a record that started with "Day of the Outlaw (1959)" and then use the role and credit order to build the full list. In this case, Tina Louise has an entry
What we are getting in title.principals seems to be a pseudo-random list of cast and crew with no differentiation between them, except (maybe) influenced by the popularity meter that IMDb maintains. Maybe Alexander Courage, a crew member, is popular because of his association with Star Trek.
I know that IMDb has chosen to make most of its data unavailable to the public and we can't go back to the old days, but could we at least get the cast data from actors.list and actresses.list? That way we can build an accurate list of performers, in the proper credit order.
So for example, if you wanted the cast list for this film, Day of the Outlaw, you would go to actors.list and actresses.list and build a list of anybody who had a record that started with "Day of the Outlaw (1959)" and then use the role and credit order to build the full list. In this case, Tina Louise has an entry
Day of the Outlaw (1959) [Helen Crane] <3>So we know that her character was "Helen Crane" and her credit order was 3rd. This matches what you see on IMDb.com. actors.list and actresses.list were really big files, so that was a fair bit of work if you wanted to discover the cast on a specific movie, but at least the data was there and not too hard to parse if you knew what to look for and minded the whitespace correctly.
What we are getting in title.principals seems to be a pseudo-random list of cast and crew with no differentiation between them, except (maybe) influenced by the popularity meter that IMDb maintains. Maybe Alexander Courage, a crew member, is popular because of his association with Star Trek.
I know that IMDb has chosen to make most of its data unavailable to the public and we can't go back to the old days, but could we at least get the cast data from actors.list and actresses.list? That way we can build an accurate list of performers, in the proper credit order.
I think the core of the problem is that while a list of the top actors and/or crew is useful for some cases, there really is no replacement for the credits that were available in the old FTP data.
So for example, if you wanted the cast list for this film, Day of the Outlaw, you would go to actors.list and actresses.list and build a list of anybody who had a record that started with "Day of the Outlaw (1959)" and then use the role and credit order to build the full list. In this case, Tina Louise has an entry
What we are getting in title.principals seems to be a pseudo-random list of cast and crew with no differentiation between them, except (maybe) influenced by the popularity meter that IMDb maintains. Maybe Alexander Courage, a crew member, is popular because of his association with Star Trek.
I know that IMDb has chosen to make most of its data unavailable to the public and we can't go back to the old days, but could we at least get the cast data from actors.list and actresses.list? That way we can build an accurate list of performers, in the proper credit order.
So for example, if you wanted the cast list for this film, Day of the Outlaw, you would go to actors.list and actresses.list and build a list of anybody who had a record that started with "Day of the Outlaw (1959)" and then use the role and credit order to build the full list. In this case, Tina Louise has an entry
Day of the Outlaw (1959) [Helen Crane] <3>So we know that her character was "Helen Crane" and her credit order was 3rd. This matches what you see on IMDb.com. actors.list and actresses.list were really big files, so that was a fair bit of work if you wanted to discover the cast on a specific movie, but at least the data was there and not too hard to parse if you knew what to look for and minded the whitespace correctly.
What we are getting in title.principals seems to be a pseudo-random list of cast and crew with no differentiation between them, except (maybe) influenced by the popularity meter that IMDb maintains. Maybe Alexander Courage, a crew member, is popular because of his association with Star Trek.
I know that IMDb has chosen to make most of its data unavailable to the public and we can't go back to the old days, but could we at least get the cast data from actors.list and actresses.list? That way we can build an accurate list of performers, in the proper credit order.
David Chappelle wrote:
So for example, if you wanted the cast list for this film, Day of the Outlaw, you would go to actors.list and actresses.list and build a list of anybody who had a record that started with "Day of the Outlaw (1959)" and then use the role and credit order to build the full list. [...]That's true if you do it manually, but it's no work at all if you are using proper software. I am using AMDbFront for parsing the FTP files, and here is a screenshot:
This matches what you see on IMDb.com. actors.list and actresses.list were really big files, so that was a fair bit of work if you wanted to discover the cast on a specific movie, but at least the data was there and not too hard to parse if you knew what to look for and minded the whitespace correctly.
David Chappelle wrote:
So for example, if you wanted the cast list for this film, Day of the Outlaw, you would go to actors.list and actresses.list and build a list of anybody who had a record that started with "Day of the Outlaw (1959)" and then use the role and credit order to build the full list. [...]That's true if you do it manually, but it's no work at all if you are using proper software. I am using AMDbFront for parsing the FTP files, and here is a screenshot:
This matches what you see on IMDb.com. actors.list and actresses.list were really big files, so that was a fair bit of work if you wanted to discover the cast on a specific movie, but at least the data was there and not too hard to parse if you knew what to look for and minded the whitespace correctly.
I posted my above message only once, and I have no idea why it's here in two instances.
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled IMDb Data Files Available for download.
According to your website: (http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/) "The dataset files can be accessed and downloaded from https://datasets.imdbws.com/. The data is refreshed daily." I'm looking at the downloadable file: name.basics.tsv.gz , according to that file (downloaded 12/30/2017)...Victor Brooks (nm0003499) is not deceased, but if you look up nm0003499 on your website, he died in 1999. Same for Leslie Adams (nm0011145)...he is alive according to name.basics.tsv.gz, but if you look nm0011145 up on your website he is deceased as of 1993. Are these dataset files no longer updated? Thanks
According to your website: (http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/) "The dataset files can be accessed and downloaded from https://datasets.imdbws.com/. The data is refreshed daily." I'm looking at the downloadable file: name.basics.tsv.gz , according to that file (downloaded 12/30/2017)...Victor Brooks (nm0003499) is not deceased, but if you look up nm0003499 on your website, he died in 1999. Same for Leslie Adams (nm0011145)...he is alive according to name.basics.tsv.gz, but if you look nm0011145 up on your website he is deceased as of 1993. Are these dataset files no longer updated? Thanks
Chris H., Employee
Hello Michael, The dataset is refreshed daily but date of death is only included in the file if we have a year, month and day for death for the person. This is why those data items are missing for the people you refer to.
Chris, because IMDb only provide the Year of Death in name.basics.tsv.gz, and you have that on your web page for Michael's examples, why not include it?
I don't see an equivalent to the ftp interface's business.list. Will this be coming later to the S3 interface?
Can we please get a response to this?
Yeah, all I see at https://datasets.imdbws.com/ is:
title.ratings.tsv.gz
None of these sound like an equivalent to the ftp's business.list
title.ratings.tsv.gz
None of these sound like an equivalent to the ftp's business.list
Vincent Fournols
I have another question to Amazon: what would be the cost of maintaining the FTP files, say on a monthly basis instead of a weekly one? I would be ready to pay a (very reasonable) fee to keep access to this data. Especially if it is discounted when I contribute to the data feed and update, as proposed by Valen above. This would seem fair in your merchandization and monetization of what use to be a fantastic collaborative and open and free project, don't you think?
V.
valen
Actually no. People do not understand that Contributors are the real "secret sauce" behind IMDb’s success. They (Contributors) really sell themselves short. Data will "rot" very easily, if it goes without constant verification and supervision. Think of it as a green lawn. Without proper and constant maintenance it would turn into a "jungle" of sorts in a short amount of time.
Somebody mentioned Wikipedia and is a bit like that too. Without constant attention Wikipedia would quickly become unusable and worthless. And this change is even more braindead because now more than ever they will need to keep their Contributors happy because data input will grow more and more as time passes. And this is the time that they thought it be a good time to show Contributors (which they'll need more and more of as time goes by) this (symbolical) huge middle finger. As plain, common, sense, one does not (should not) antagonize the ones that one depends on.
Another way of looking at it (which is also one of my favorites) is that IMDb is the longest running, most successful case of Crowd Funding ever (it's still going at it), anticipating that movement by many many years. And the reason it worked so well and so successfully, until now, is because of 2 things, IMO: 1. Instead of money (which people tend to have more difficulty parting with, curiously enough) it asked "only" for time (which people donate more easily even if it is more valuable); and 2. The "rewards" were also very simple and easily understandable, "you give us your time and we won't cut you off when you want to make use of the data, for you own private pleasure”. There’s nothing simpler than that! And so, what do they want to do now? 1. "Give us your time AND your money too"; and 2. "Rewards? No. None of that. Here’s a reduced version of the data we chose for you IF you pay for it, like any other customer. But no rewards.". Genius!
You rightly pointed out that data is more and more coming from other interested parties. But that is only a small part of it. All data has errors, inconsistencies, typos, or it can be just plain wrong. "Dumping" data is just the first small, step. It's the eyes of the thousands (more than that) that little by little turn it into quality data. Elsewhere was a comparison with bees but I see it more as an ant colony where each ant (Contributor) does just a little bit every time but that is essential for the success of the whole colony. And one ant is dispensable but if you take all the ants from the colony it'll disappear very soon. These thousands and thousands of micro-corrections forwarded by Contributors resulted in IMDb data today. And don't get me wrong, there are errors there now. There will always be errors there. Just not the same ones and their importance and scale will be smaller and smaller with time. Providing happy Contributors still do their work, as always.
If I can misquote from "Soylent Green": "IMDb is people!”. In this case, Contributors. That is the reason it has the better (best) data. And you can quote me on that.