Quentin Tarantino has unceremoniously lost his court dispute with Gawker over the leaking of The Hateful Eight script. A federal judge in California has dismissed the director's lawsuit, which was filed in January after Gawker.com published a link to a script for Tarantino's forthcoming movie - which has since been scrapped.

Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino Had His Gawker Lawsuit Thrown Out By A Californian Judge

Tarantino accused Gawker media of crossing "the journalistic line" and contributing to copyright infringement.

"There was nothing newsworthy or journalistic about Gawker Media facilitating and encouraging the public's violation of Plaintiff's copyright in the Screenplay, and it's conduct will not shield Gawker Media from liability for their unlawful activity," Tarantino's suit read.

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However, Judge John F. Walter sided with Gawker.

"[N]owhere in these paragraphs or anywhere else in the Complaint does Plaintiff allege a single act of direct infringement committed by any member of the general public that would support Plaintiff's claim for contributory infringement. Instead, Plaintiff merely speculates that some direct infringement must have taken place. For example, Plaintiff's Complaint fails to allege the identity of a single third-party infringer, the date, the time, or the details of a single instance of third-party infringement, or, more importantly, how Defendant allegedly caused, induced, or materially contributed to the infringement by those third parties," Martin noted in his decision.

Bruce DernBruce Dern Was Touted As A Possible Leaker 

Walter added, "Court GRANTS Defendant's Motion on the grounds that Plaintiff has failed to adequately plead facts establishing direct infringement by a third party or facts that would demonstrate Defendant either caused, induced, or materially contributed to the alleged direct infringement of those third party infringers."

The judge did grant a leave for Tarantino to file an amendment for his contributory infringement claim - which should be filed by May 1st.

Tarantino previously claimed he gave copies of script to six people, including the Reservoir Dogs stars Michael Madsen and Tim Roth, and the veteran actor Bruce Dern. 

With The Hateful Eight now unlikely to get made, Tarantino may well turn his attention to Kill Bill Vol 3. 

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Quentin Tarantino at the Django Unchained photo-call: