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Quentin Tarantino sues Gawker over links to leaked movie script
[January 28, 2014] LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino filed a lawsuit against media outlet Gawker for copyright infringement in a U.S. district court in Los Angeles on Monday, after the website published links to download the script for his latest movie, entitled "The Hateful Eight."
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Gawker editor John Cook denied the publication had infringed
on copyright in a post published on Gawker.com on Monday. He
said Gawker did not leak Tarantino's 146-page Western movie
script and only published a link to a website where the script
could be downloaded. In court documents, writer-director Tarantino claimed Gawker
Media promoted and disseminated unauthorized, downloadable
copies of the leaked screenplay. The filmmaker is seeking more than $1 million in damages for
each of two copyright infringement claims. The lawsuit also names website AnonFiles.com, which the Gawker
article linked to, and which contains downloads of Tarantino's
script. Reuters was not immediately able to contact AnonFiles.com for
comment. Cook said Gawker had nothing to do with the appearance of "The
Hateful Eight" script on the Internet and said it didn't know
who had uploaded the document to AnonFiles.com. Cook also said that Gawker was being sued for contributory
copyright infringement, for publishing links to AnonFiles.com,
which is being sued for direct copyright infringement. AnonFiles.com allows users to upload and download files
anonymously, and in its terms and conditions it says users can
be held responsible for illegal and copyright infringement
material. It adds that illegal files will be removed. As of Monday, Gawker's story, first published on January 23, was
still live along with links to download the script on
AnonFiles.com. Tarantino, 50, is known for his edgy, gritty films that fuse
dark humor with violence, including 1994's "Pulp Fiction" and
2012's "Django Unchained," both of which earned him Oscar wins
for best original screenplay. The lawsuit details how Tarantino discovered that a copy of his
latest screenplay had been leaked publicly on January 21, which
he addressed in an interview with film industry website Deadline
Hollywood. Tarantino said he was "very, very depressed" at the leak and
scrapped his plans to make the movie, saying that he would
publish the script instead. (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy;
editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker) Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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