Diamonds of the season or Thieves of the ton?

Many of our readers may be fans of the smash hit Netflix production “Bridgerton”, a show based on the book series by Julia Quinn. The show’s roaring success has led to fans creating their own skits and videos inspired by the series and posting the results on social media.

The most successful of these, “The unofficial Bridgerton musical” was started by the songwriting duo Barlow and Bear who took it upon themselves to create an unofficial musical of Bridgerton which was published via various platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

The two saw their project receive massive publicity for their work, so much so that they eventually went on to win a Grammy for the production. However, this inevitably led to it becoming noticed by the producer of the original Netflix show, Shonda Rhimes and the books’ original author, Julia Quinn.

The songwriting duo are now facing a lawsuit lodged by Netflix against their work. In the complaint, it made clear that Netflix had offered them a license to continue using the ‘Bridgerton IP’ in return for a share of profits but the pair had refused. The verdict of the case is now eagerly awaited as it may have massive implications for fan-made content in the future.

Briffa comment

Here at Briffa, the team benefits from over 25 years’ experience assisting with all aspects of copyright protection, ranging from initial recordal to enforcement in the event of infringement. If you need any further information in this regard, please do feel free to get in touch with us via info@briffa.com.

Written by Aryan Vanisa, Work Experience with Briffa