In case you missed it, last week director Quentin Tarantino‘s brand-new script for The Hateful Eight got leaked. Quentin was so pissed that he shelved the movie, and now he’s out for blood. And wouldn’t you know, the first target on his list is Gawker. Turns out, their Defamer off-branch painted itself as the place to read the leaked script, and now Tarantino’s going in for the kill.
“Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people’s rights to make a buck,” says Tarantino’s lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
According to the complaint, “Their headline boasts… ‘Here,’ not someplace else, but ‘Here’ on the Gawker website. 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 the invitation to ‘Enjoy!’ it.” SOURCE
I actually really like Gawker, and still consider it one of the few media outlets that still does investigative journalism well when it isn’t just trolling for page views or offering Rich Juzwiak a place to hate things that are popular (Yes Rich, we get it! You’re better than everyone! We know!) but the question does need to be asked: At what point does it stop being freedom of information and start being intellectual theft? Regardless of where you stand, the important thing is that this question isn’t be asked by Shia LaBeouf, because that guy is like herpes of the soul.