Netflix Sued for Using Fyre Festivalgoer’s Video in Documentary

A Fyre Festival attendee is suing Netflix after the streaming giant allegedly used her footage in its documentary about the failed luxury music festival.

According to TMZ, 2017 festivalgoer Clarissa Cardenas has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and Fyre Festival: The Greatest Party that Never Happened producer Jerry Media for copyright infringement after she learned that video she captured was featured in the February-released documentary.

In the lawsuit, Cardenas accuses the streaming service and the production company of using the footage without licensing it from her, despite that she had registered her video with the U.S. Copyright Office. World Intellectual Property Review reports that Cardenas had registered her video, which features images of the hurricane tents guests were to sleep in, at the US Copyright Office under PA 2-153-792 in December of last year. She also registered two other videos that she took while at the festival.

Cardenas is seeking $150,000 in damages or a cut of the documentary’s profits.

The lawsuit marks the latest in a string of trouble and controversy surrounding the Netflix documentary. Before the documentary even made its debut, event planner Andy King requested that a certain scene in which he admitted that Fyre co-founder Billy McFarland encouraged King, as their “wonderful gay leader,” to bribe the head of customs of the Bahamas into giving them their Evian water delivery by offering oral sex.

“I went to them and I said, listen, I just talked to my lawyers and some of my creative team and they said ‘Andy, you’ve gotta pull this thing, that can not go into this documentary,” King told TMZ. ” When I sat with the director, he said ‘Andy, you don’t understand. Without that scene, there isn’t a documentary.’ I said, come on, there’s no way. And he said ‘Trust me.’”

Ultimately, the scene was kept in the documentary, something that King now says he doesn’t regret.

“I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if it were taken out. I mean how I’ve become this social media hero over a situation like that, I’m in total shock,” he said.

More recently, Fyre co-founder Ja Rule has faced backlash after he announced his plans to launch a Fyre Festival 2.0, claiming that “in the midst of chaos is opportunity.” The rapper recently announced that he has been working on a new talent booking app called ICONN (Ice Connect), which he intends to transform into another, hopefully more successful, music festival.

Fyre Festival: The Greatest Party that Never Happened is currently available for streaming on Netflix.