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 DENYING MOTION TO REMAND v. Re: Dkt. No.

NETFLIX, INC.,

11 Defendant.

12 This a copyright dispute involving the Netflix series Tiger King. Plaintiffs Timothy Sepi and Whyte Monkee Productions LLC allege that Netflix, Inc. displayed unauthorized derivatives of several of their copyrighted videos in violation of the copyright laws of several foreign nations. Netflix removed the action from state court and plaintiffs now move to remand, contending that this Court lacks federal question jurisdiction and that Netflix, a forum defendant, is ineligible to remove this case on the basis of diversity jurisdiction. Because at least one of plaintiffs’ claims raises a substantial and disputed question of federal copyright law, the motion to remand is denied. I. Background Mr. Sepi is a creative professional who controls a film production…