The image is from the screen shot of the film "Tarantino NFTs".
Miramax has sued the director over his non-fungible token collection. The lawsuit was filed yesterday in California court and noted online by attorney Mark Jaffe. Miramax accuses him of violating the company's copyrighted and trademark and is demanding a halt to the upcoming sale.
The NFT collection is supposed to include a drawing inspired by the scene in the movie, as well as high-resolution scans of the original handwritten script. Miramax claims that the NFTs linked with the film's script don't cover the limited contractual rights of the film's director.
Tarantino may have misled other creators into believing they have the right to exploit Miramax films.
Miramax objects to the use of branding and imagery by the director, saying it will confuse buyers into thinking the NFTs are official Miramax products. NFTs don't fall under the umbrella of "publish" pieces of the screenplay, as it says. The proposed sale of a few original script pages or scenes as an NFT is not a publication.
The bigger issue is that it could set a precedent for other filmmakers. Miramax holds the rights to exploit Miramax films through NFTs and other emerging technologies, and Tarantino may have misled other creators into believing they have the right to do so. Major film companies have released their own NFT collections for movies like Space Jam, so that is not an abstract concern.
It is one of the first legal tests of what an NFT actually is, and whether it is comparable to any of the other options. Miramax's rights include a set of exceptions that do not encompass any rights or media that were not known at the time of the original rights agreement. In a response to a cease and desist letter, the writer alleged that he was publishing sections of a screenplay with additional alterations.
NFTs are a lucrative technology that allows people to profit off media outside of traditional licensing deals. The NFTs are supposed to add a layer of privacy and access control features that will hide previously unknown secrets about his work.
