Netflix is being sued over Outer Banks, it has been reported. According to documents obtained by TMZ, an author is claiming Netflix has copied ideas from one of his novels, and has filed a copyright lawsuit.
He claims Outer Banks creators Jonas Pate, Josh Pate and Shannon Burke have previously said they took inspiration from books for their series on Netflix, and the character arcs are nearly identical to those in his book.
Wilson has requested Netflix transfers over any profits it has made from allegedly infringing on his novel, in addition to an injunction which would stop Netflix from distributing or advertising Outer Banks in the future.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time Netflix has been sued and caught in a legal battle over Outer Banks. In 2016, Kevin Wooten released Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure! – also a book about four teens hunting for treasure from a shipwreck, based in North Carolina’s outer banks.
The author claimed the main characters, plot, villains and even clues the characters find to the treasure in Outer Banks, were similar to their book. This claim was not successful, as a judge did not find sufficient similarities.