Netflix’s Outer Banks Hit With Copyright Infringement Suit From North Carolina Teacher

The Netflix series Outer Banks has been hit with a copyright infringement suit. The December 21st lawsuit was filed by North Carolina teacher/author Kevin Wooten, who claims Netflix and Outer Banks creators Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke, stole the idea for the show from his 2016 novel “Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure.” The lawsuit cites multiple examples of undeniable similarities between the two projects, including the Outer Banks setting, the same kind of antagonists, similar storylines of buried treasure mystery, and even the same number of main characters that all allegedly have similar storylines.

You can read the description of “Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure” below (via Amazon), followed by the synopsis for Netflix’s Outer Banks. Then you can judge for yourself how similar they sound:

“In May of 1718, Edward Teach, also known to the Pirating world as Blackbeard, led a week long blockade of Charles Town harbour (today known as Charleston, South Carolina). His only demand was a chest of medicine… This was no ordinary chest, and it certainly wasn’t a chest of medicine… This was a chest that dated back to the first century, and made its way to America on a Templar ship. This was a chest that could change the world.

Benjamin and Nathaniel Pennywise, along with their uncle, Ottaway Burns, discover a clue while diving off the coast of Ocracoke that takes them on an adventure spanning two continents. They must outwit a sinister group of treasure hunters who will stop at nothing to lay hold to the chest so they can use its contents to further their agenda. Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure!, is a fast-paced adventure that will leave you questioning recorded history.”

And now, the description of Netflix’s Outer Banks:

“Outer Banks follows a group of teenagers in the Outer Banks of North Carolina who are called “Pogues”, who live at The Cut, and are determined to find out what happened to the missing father of the group’s ringleader, John B. Along the way, they discover a legendary treasure that is tied to John B’s father.[4]

Chased by the law and a wealthy and superior group called the “Kooks” from Figure Eight, the Pogues seek to overcome obstacles such as drugs, love, fighting, friendship, money, and how the rich keep on winning in their quest to reach John B’s father’s goal that he had been working on for 20 years.”

Outer Banks is now streaming on Netflix.

Via: Variety