Quoting marnix64:

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I was wandering which source may be used when you have to use a year of birth to distinguish between different actors/crew members with the same name.  Is Imdb for instance accepted or should you give a written source (Encyclopedia Britannica,...)  Can someone advice me?

For future reference, this sort of question belongs in the Contribution forum.  This one is for technical hardware/software issues.

IMDB is unacceptable for anything related to Profiler (you can use it as a reference point of departure, but the information is not to be used as a source).  You should use several actor web sites, reference books, etc., and document them in your contribution notes.  Be careful, though, that those sights aren't just duplicating IMDB data.

IMDb can be used exactly the same way as any other third party data. You can't use it for copying data but you can use it for documentation. In an ideal case the birth year would be documented from more than one source.

Quoting T!M:

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Quoting RHo:

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IMDb can be used exactly the same way as any other third party data. You can't use it for copying data but you can use it for documentation. In an ideal case the birth year would be documented from more than one source.

Correct! Rifter's claim that "IMDb is unacceptable for anything related to Profiler" is complete and utter nonsense - it's just as valid, or invalid, as any other external source. It is, indeed, highly recommended that you use more than one source to document something like this, but neither the rules nor the screeners prohibit us from using any particular source for reference purposes. Again: as long as it isn't the solitary source.

But you should always check where the other "sources" got their information from, quite often you'll realize that they crossrefer and the info starts at IMDB which refers to Wikipedia which refers to IMDB ... (ad infinitum)
So definetly the best way to prove an information is the Homepage (HP) of the cast- or crewmember in question, or the HP of their managers / agents.

Quoting marnix64:

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Thanks for the advice.  So use as many credible sources as possible and avoid Imdb as a direct source.  Imdb is a commercial site which jealously looks after her information (it also sells its information), Invelos is also partly commercial, so you musn't quote it here directly as a source.  Does this make sense?

Yes I think you've got it