Movie Subtitles

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    1. Jul 7, 2008
      ibebbs says:

      Hi all,

      I have been using Freebase for a little while now to index my movie collection (where film information exist in Freebase) and, eventually, upload film information back to Freebase. I have subtitles for the majority of my films and think they would make a valuable addition to the Freebase Film schema (imagine querying for who said a particular line and in which films).

      How would I go about adding a Subtitles schema to Freebase and linking it to the Films/TV schema?

      Alternatively, if this schema already exists, could somebody point me at it? I searched but couldn't find it.

      Cheers,

      Ian

      2. gmackenz Metaweb Staff
        Jul 7, 2008
        gmackenz says:

        It's great that you are finding a good use of our service! Thanks!

        Our goal is to provide linkages between sets of data, not really to be a repository for data in of itself...

        Thus we provide an excerpt of the associated wikipedia article as a blurb (but not recreate the entire article, that's what the linkages (and keys) back to Wikipedia are for. We allow for weblinks to sites that have specific and useful information about the topic but is of a restrictive licensed nature (IMDb for example).

        Our database is not set up for large amounts of text. We encourage the use of text for specific notation about a specific property but not for than about almost a thousand characters.

        Secondly, legality.

        Your subtitles are a form of film script and would most likely be considered as property of the creators/owner of the film. At best they would be a grey area of legality to be made available in text form outside of the film, video tape or disc.

        If it was a film you wrote and owned outright, and was published with an CC license, the providing the subtitles externally from the film would most likely be legal in that case ;)

        What you could do is create your own type in your own private domain (default one or a more specifically named 'Film Subtitles' domain). The type could designed to contain what subtitles in what editions of the film (Theatrical Release/DVD/TV Broadcast) in what languages...Check out how the Film Regional Release Date is designed, though it may need not be a Compound Value Type.

        http://www.freebase.com/tools/schema/film/film_regional_release_date

      3. robert Metaweb Staff
        Jul 7, 2008
        robert says:

        Hi Ian --

        Subtitles would be covered by copyright protection, so you would only be allowed to add them from films from the public domain or with an open license (such as CC-BY).

        Copyright law, however, does allow small fragments from copyrighted works to be cited. I don't know what the limits are, but I imagine that many short subtitle snippets would be allowed per movie, perhaps from key scenes.

        Also, aside from the contents of the subtitles themselves, what kind of metadata would you imagine having for subtitles? Freebase could store that information without restrictions.

        R

      4. Aug 27, 2008
        filmword says:

        Hi Ian,

         Don't be discouraged. What you are doing is very valuable. Many people speculate about U.S. copyright law though they are not experts.

        I'm not an expert either, but I work in the area of subtitles and film captions, specifically for accessibity for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the U.S. - 30 million people. (About as many people as the entire population of Canada!)

        Regarding your efforts and copyright law, one of the main issues is whether you are aiming to be seeking any profit from your efforts. If you are just seeking to build up an index of film characters and quotes, you are probably within the Fair Use doctrine, and can carry on, as long as you indicate appropriate copyright notices on the material you post.

        In this period of global cross-cultural communication, your work has many possible uses which would certainly fall within the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law, including making available information needed for making film/video accessible to Deaf in U.S., Deaf in non-English speaking cultures, and non-English language access to films/videos not otherwise subtitled or dubbed. 

        I just heard an interview with David Huynh, new guy at FreeBase.com, and it sure sounds like he is making interaces to browse and view specific data details exactly along the lines you mention. 

        You might check out some sites like:

        mysubtitles.org

        dotsub.com

        good luck,

        Greg
        owner
        DeafAccessFilms.com


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