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Netflix successfully defeated copyright infringement claims related to its 2020 pandemic-hit Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. On April 30, 2026, the Tenth Circuit held that use of a 66-second video clip in the docuseries was fair use, applying the Supreme Court’s Warhol decision and holding that secondary use does not need to directly comment on the original work to qualify as fair use.
Plaintiff Timothy Sepi filmed eight videos later incorporated into Netflix’s docuseries. Seven were created while Sepi was employed by Joe Exotic, the central figure in the series, whereas the eighth—referred to as the “Funeral Video”—was recorded after Sepi left that role. The Funeral Video is 66 seconds long and appears in Episode 5 of Tiger King, comprising approximately 2.58% of the forty-two-minute episode.
The district court had granted summary judgment, holding that the first seven videos were works made for hire (i.e., Sepi was not the copyright owner), and that use of the Funeral Video constituted fair use. The Tenth Circuit heard oral arguments in March 2023, and issued a decision in March 2024 affirming the district court’s work-for-hire ruling but reversing as to fair use. After defendants—supported by multiple amici—petitioned for rehearing in light of the Supreme Court’s intervening decision in Warhol v. Goldsmith, the Tenth Circuit vacated its March 2024 opinion and granted panel rehearing in part. On rehearing, the Tenth Circuit was asked to determine how prevailing fair‑use principles—especially as applied to documentary filmmaking under § 107 and informed by Warhol—should govern the defendants’ use of the Funeral Video clip. The appellate court ultimately affirmed the district court’s judgment, clarifying the fair-use analysis and standard in the wake of Warhol.
Read more on Whyte Monkee Productions, LLC v. Netflix, Inc. here.
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