Netflix Tiger King Fair Use Win Restored by 10th Cir. U-Turn (1)

Netflix Inc. revived a lower court’s ruling that the streaming giant made fair use of a cameraman’s funeral coverage in its “Tiger King” docuseries as the Tenth Circuit reversed itself Thursday—21 months after rehearing the case.

The initial renewal of Timothy Sepi’s claim that Netflix used more footage than needed was wrong because the purpose of its use was entirely different from Sepi’s, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said. While Sepi was documenting a funeral, “Tiger King” used the footage as commentary on Joe Exotic, the controversial big cat breeder at the center of the series, ...