'Tiger King' Funeral Video Use Deemed Fair Use

A U.S. appeals court in Denver, Colorado, has ruled in favor of Netflix in a copyright infringement lawsuit. The case involved footage of a funeral used in the popular 2020 docuseries "Tiger King." The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Netflix's use of a 66-second clip from videographer Timothy Sepi was permissible under fair use principles.

This ruling overturns a previous finding by the same court in 2024, which had suggested the filmmakers did not sufficiently transform or comment on the funeral footage. Chief Judge Jerome Holmes, who authored both opinions, stated that the docuseries' borrowing of the clips is "classic documentary-style borrowing." The panel also noted that there was no significant material gain from the commercial exploitation of the copyrighted material itself.