The complaint was filed against Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear in the federal court in Washington on Friday.Netflix has sued the creators of an alleged unauthorised musical stage production of its popular series “Bridgerton,” – accusing them of copyright infringement after building demand for their knockoff on TikTok.
“Bridgerton” is based on Julia Quinn’s bestselling romance novels and it attracted a record of 82 million viewers in the first four weeks of the series debut on Netflix. It was renewed for a second and now third season.
The complaint was filed against Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear in the federal court in Washington on Friday.
Netflix said after “Bridgerton” was first released in December 2020, the defendants started posting about the series to TikTok, where they have 2.4 million followers, including creating songs based on characters, scenes, dialogue and plot points.
The company said it warned the defendants repeatedly to stop, but they ploughed ahead with an album titled “The unofficial Bridgerton musical,” which won a Grammy award, and their stage show.