The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
In September, The Paper reported that Firooz Zahedi, the poster photographer of the movie Pulp Fiction, had sued Miramax Pictures for infringement, and the case had been sentenced.
Pulp Fiction movie poster
The Federal District Court for the District of Central California ruled against Zahdi's claim on the grounds that he had known about the studio's alleged infringement at least six years earlier, and had not been filed until this year, and the statute of limitations had expired. In this regard, the most important piece of evidence presented by the defense to judge Zhu Meiyu , the first Chinese female federal judge in U.S. history ) who presided over the case, turned out to be a graphic posted on his social media by Filoz Zahdi's stepson six years ago.
Movie posters based on Zahdi's photographs were used on official spin-off toys
On April 7, 1994, Zahdi was hired by Miramax to shoot a set of stills for actress Uma Thurman, which was eventually used as a promotional poster for the film Pulp Fiction. According to his claim, the ownership of the photo should still belong to him, and Miramax used it as a movie poster, which was in line with the original contract between the two parties, but for more than two decades, they directly used the poster (photo) on various derivative goods, including the film's video tapes and DVDs, which actually violated his rights.
According to him, in 2019, a friend gave him a pair of cotton socks themed in "Pulp Fiction", and the outer packaging of the socks used the poster he had taken. Seeing that the photographs he had originally authorized only for posters were now used on his socks, Zahdi was determined to use legal weapons to save himself from dignity and loss.
A series of films taken by Zahdi in his studio publicized the photos
In this regard, the film company insisted that the original contract stipulated that after the photo shooting was completed, the company paid a 10,000-dollar honorarium to the photographer to completely buy out its ownership, and then all related rights and interests belonged to the company. The problem, however, is that Miramax Pictures, founded in 1979 by the brothers Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, has undergone various changes over the decades, once owned by Disney and later resold in its entirety, and is now a joint property of Qatar-BeIN Media Group and Paramount Pictures. Time passed, and the specific contract they signed with Zahdi was said to have been impossible to find, which also made analysts worry that Miramax was likely to lose the case because of it.
As a result, the "witty" defense lawyer managed to find a photo of Filoz Zahdi on the Internet, overturning all the prosecution's claims in one fell swoop. In the photo, he is holding a cartoon doll of Mia, the character of Uma Thurman, which is an official derivative toy authorized by Miramax to be produced and sold, and the outer packaging is a poster of the "Pulp Fiction" movie made by Filoz Zahdi. The photo was posted by Zahdi's stepson's Instagram account dated 2015 and is accompanied by the following text: "Happy birthday to stepfather @fitzphoto." It turned out that his famous photo was used on toys, and he couldn't get the royalties... Fortunately, they at least gave him a toy..."
In this regard, Judge Zhu Meiyu held that if the parties really believed that the film company was infringing, then they would have known at the latest in 2015, and there was no reason to delay the lawsuit until 2020, so the prosecution's compensation claim was rejected. As of press time, Filoz Zahdi has not said whether he will appeal.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Ding Xiao