Quentin Tarantino made the decision to shelve The Hateful Eight after his script was leaked online. And now Gawker is about to feel the full force of his anger as the filmmaker has filed a lawsuit against the website.
Deadline reports that Tarantino is suing Gawker for allegedly facilitating the dissemination of copies of his leaked unproduced script for The Hateful Eight.
According to the lawsuit, after the script leaked online, Gawker’s Defamer blog posted links to download the 146-page script, which was in its first draft.
Here’s part of what the lawsuit states:
“Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people’s rights to make a buck. This time they went too far. Rather than merely publishing a news story reporting that Plaintiff’s screenplay may have been circulating in Hollywood without his permission, Gawker Media crossed the journalistic line by promoting itself to the public as the first source to read the entire Screenplay illegally. The article then contains multiple direct links for downloading the entire screenplay through a conveniently anonymous URL by simply clicking button-links on the Gawker page, and brazenly encourages Gawker visitors to read the screenplay illegally with an invitation to “˜enjoy’ it. There was nothing newsworthy or journalistic about Gawker Media facilitating and encouraging the public’s violation of Plaintiff’s copyright in the screenplay, and its conduct will not shield Gawker Media from liability for their unlawful act.”
You can read Tarantino’s full compliant here, via the Hollywood Reporter.
Last month, Tarantino learned that one of the six people he handed the first draft of the script to had let it be leaked. Soon after, Tarantino said that he might publish the script as a novelization, and move forward with another project.
UPDATE: Gawker has posted their response to the lawsuit, which clarifies that they were not responsible for the leak and did not host the script, but merely linked to another site hosting it.
[Source: Deadline]
Barrett Brown is facing 110 years in prison for sharing a link to a stolen document. Plus a gag order. And he’s spent the last year in prison because of it. How about some media equality?
Comment by Benjamin Phillips — January 28, 2014 @ 11:07 am