Whyte Monkee Productions LLC v. Netflix, Inc.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 WHYTE MONKEE PRODUCTIONS LLC, Case No. 23-cv-03438-PCP et al., 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO DISMISS v.

NETFLIX, INC.,

11 Defendant.

12 This case involves two different lawsuits in two different courts, each arising from the same series of events surrounding Netflix’s production of the documentary series Tiger King. In September 2020, plaintiffs Whyte Monkee Productions LLC and Timothy Sepi (collectively, “plaintiffs”) sued Netflix, Inc. (“Netflix”) and Royal Goode Productions in the Western District of Oklahoma alleging that Netflix displayed unauthorized derivatives of eight cinematographic works owned by plaintiffs in violation of the federal Copyright Act. No. 5:20-cv-00933-D (W.D. Okla.). Plaintiffs filed their second amended complaint in the Oklahoma litigation on December 13, 2021. Id. at Dkt. No. 40. The Oklahoma district court granted summary judgment to Netflix with respect to all eight videos, finding that plaintiffs did not own seven of…