Miramax has sued Quentin Tarantino over breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition over Tarantino’s attempt to list excerpts of his handwritten screenplay of “Pulp Fiction” as an NFT. Miramax says that when they signed a contract with Tarantino in 1993, he signed over the rights of the film, with the exception that Tarantino kept limited “Reserved Rights.” Those “Reserved Rights” include a clause saying Tarantino has the rights to “print publication (including, without limitation, screenplay publication)” of the film. Miramax’s statement says that since NFTs are a one-time sale, they are not equivalent to publishing a screenplay and that, therefore, Miramax owns the NFT rights.
In a statement, Miramax attorney Bart Williams accused Tarantino’s team of a “deliberate, pre-meditated, short-term money grab.”
“This group chose to recklessly, greedily, and intentionally disregard the agreement that Quentin signed instead of following the clear legal and ethical approach of simply communicating with Miramax about his proposed ideas,” Williams said. “This one-off effort devalues the NFT rights to ‘Pulp Fiction,’ which Miramax intends to maximize through a strategic, comprehensive approach.”
“Miramax is wrong — plain and simple,” Tarantino’s attorney Bryan Freedman said in a statement. “Quentin Tarantino’s contract is clear: he has the right to sell NFTs of his handwritten script for Pulp Fiction, and this ham-fisted attempt to prevent him from doing so will fail. But Miramax’s callous decision to disclose confidential information about its filmmakers’ contracts and compensation will irreparably tarnish its reputation long after this case is dismissed.”
– Excerpt from an article for Variety by Gene Maddus. Read the full article here.
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