Netflix is being sued over claims Outer Banks is rip-off of 2013 novel

Netflix is being sued by a writer who claims it has stolen characters and stories from his 2013 novel for its show Outer Banks.

Outer Banks has been a success since it was released back in 2020, with a positive Rotten Tomatoes rating to boot.

As it stands, we’re up to season three – which was released back in February 2023 – and fans don’t seem to be getting bored of the programme.

Created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke, the show stars Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, and Jonathan Daviss as a group of kids living in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The teenage protagonists are dead set on finding out what happened to their ringleader’s father, discovering treasure along the way.

That’s how the drama unfolds, anyway.

Netflix

However, Jeff Wilson has now filed a copyright infringement suit at the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri because he claims this is pretty much how the drama unfolds in his book Queen Anne’s Revenge.

He says his book tells the story of four teenagers who hunt for treasure on a shipwreck near to the Outer Banks of North Carolina as well.

In documents for the suit obtained by TMZ, Wilson alleges that Netflix took his intellectual property to make its own story, which became the show.

He also alleges that his own book was publicised by TV stations Discovery and the History Channel, as well as pointing out that the creators of Outer Banks have cited other books and writers for inspiration when coming up with the series.

As well as that, he claims that plot points and characters are almost identical to what he came up with in Queen Anne’s Revenge, even claiming that the settings are similar.

Facebook/Queen Anne's Revenge

As per the documents, Wilson wants Netflix to turn over profits from Outer Banks for allegedly infringing his copyright.

He also wants an injunction to stop Netflix distributing or advertising the show.

Strangely, this isn’t the first time Outer Banks has been sued for copyright infringement, as another author K.W. Wooten sued it because he said his own book – Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure! – was pretty similar.

In the end, that suit was dismissed after a judge ruled there was not sufficient evidence the two words were similar.

We’ll have to wait and see how this next suit turns out.