{"id":95576,"date":"2025-08-20T00:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/95576\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T00:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:43:08","slug":"netflix-and-adam-mckay-win-dismissal-of-dont-look-up-copyright-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/95576\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix and Adam McKay Win Dismissal of ‘Don’t Look Up’ Copyright Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNetflix<\/a> and Adam McKay<\/a> are two-for-two in defeating copyright lawsuits from self-published authors over the 2021 film \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Gregory Presnell dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday from Darren Hunter, of\u00a0Harleysville, Pa., who claimed that the film was based on his novel, \u201cThe Million Day Forecast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge ruled that the novel is \u201can entirely different work\u201d from the movie, and that the alleged similarities constitute \u201cbroad uncopyrightable ideas that are typical of works that center around the Earth\u2019s destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix had argued that, among other differences, \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d is a satire of disaster movies, while Hunter\u2019s novel is \u201cpart science fiction, part conspiracy thriller, part \u2018YA.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe humor is tame and adolescent,\u201d Netflix\u2019s lawyers wrote of the novel. \u201cThe Film, by contrast, walks the line between being a truly terrifying disaster movie and one long joke, due to its satire and sometimes over-the-top silliness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother author, William Collier, sued in 2023, claiming that \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d was actually based on his self-published novel, \u201cStanley\u2019s Comet.\u201d That lawsuit was thrown out last year on similar grounds.<\/p>\n

\n\tCollier briefly pursued an appeal to the 9th Circuit, but dropped it when Netflix filed a motion seeking about $100,000 in attorneys\u2019 fees.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the latest case, Presnell read the book and watched the movie before concluding that \u201cas a matter of law, no lay person could recognize that the Movie has been appropriated from \u2018The Million Day Forecast.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHunter initially filed suit in state court in Orlando, Fla., seeking $3 billion in damages. Netflix removed the case to federal court. In opposing the motion to dismiss, Hunter\u2019s attorney argued that the issue of the alleged similarities between the two works was a factual question that should have been left for the jury.<\/p>\n

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