Copyright issue.....

My understanding is that when you registered on IMDb, you gave them permission to do whatever they want with your posts, because they asked for it as part of registering process. That also means they were free to delete your posts at their wish (otherwise they would've never been able to delete inappropriate or troll posts, for instance)

Then, later, IMDb gave us permission to backup our own posts for personal use, before closing the boards.

I'm starting to believe that if IMDb wanted this site to close, they would have to prove that posts by every dead name in here weren't published for personal use. That would be quite a challenge to prove. They would have to contact every known member of IMDb who has their posts archived here and get them to sign an official statement that they didn't approve of this site publishing their old posts.

In short, I'm starting to believe that's why IMDb will never do anything about this site because it would be too much trouble for IMDb. What do you think about this idea? (Trying to think positively)

Fair use

IMDb did welcome its members to, before the 2/20/17 end of the message boards feature, to archive out their posts, if they wished. I personally did so, in order to assure that any of my own writings, of throughout the years, that I particularly like, and/or that I thought I'd maybe be able to reuse somehow, or somewhere, going forward, that it'll be readily available to me. So, we did all have advance notice to save any of our past posts that we personally wished to keep. It would have been nice if IMDb had announced boards closure at least 30 days beforehand, instead of just 14 days, so we could have all had more time.

Incidentally, I personally haven't at all ruled out that IMDb may, in some form, present archived read-only filtered past message boards posts on their site at some point, when they introduce their new features that they wrote of in their site message on 2/20/17 in which they stated they'll be introducing new features this year and be providing "meaningful" ways for users to express themselves, and to share with one another, etc. I personally really think that, as part of whatever all their new system features will include, they're going to electronically filter out all past posts that seem like potential trolling, or that include links or urls, or problematic words viewed as derogatory, defamatory, or demeaning, etc., and present a lot that's electronically judged to be good save-worthy content. If so, whether those past posts would be still electronically linkable to us, if we were to return as users, would be the big question. If IMDb DOES in some form present the archived past boards posts (selectively), then what all's saved over here, from the IMDb boards, is I think going to be viewed a real problem. Incidentally, IMDb has never, at any point, stated they actually were, or are, going to delete all, or even any, of the boards content. All they stated was solely that they were closing the boards feature itself. So they have full rights to at any time use any of it that they may wish.

the page layout is very similar to imdb