Did you ever watch a movie and think, “I could have made that movie”? Well, if actually making the movie proves to be too difficult, here’s an alternative strategy: you could just write to the Internet Movie Database and demand that they give you credit for having produced it. But, unfortunately for those of you who like to take shortcuts, it turns out that IMDB has this silly policy of only crediting people for their work on a movie when those people appear in the movie credits.

So, there’s always Plan B: sue IMDB. That’s what David Kronemyer did. He wanted to be credited as executive producer of hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, B-movie Wishcraft, and TV-movie Stand and Be Counted. (I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve actually seen Wishcraft; I think the people who should sue are the ones who did get blame credit for making it.)

Fortunately, this story had a reasonably happy ending: Kronemyer was sanctioned by the California judge hearing the case for bringing a SLAPP suit, and ordered to pay $6,270 to the IMDB to compensate it for attorney’s fees. (Although, as Shaun Martin notes, that probably doesn’t fully compensate the IMDB.) The fact that Kronemyer had virtually no evidence to support his demands presumably didn’t help his case; he had a document showing that at one time he might have been involved with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and nothing at all for the other two movies. But this complete lack of evidence didn’t seem to deter Kronemyer; he actually appealed the lower court’s dismissal of his lawsuit. The court of appeals wasn’t impressed (PDF).

Kronemyer represented himself, so it might seem unfair to blame lawyers for this one — except that Kronemyer’s a lawyer himself. Well, sort of; he actually resigned from the bar with unspecified disciplinary charges pending.

Filed under: movies film and videos, online speech