Stories can be our creations. Stories can be the life we lived. In fact, the life we are living right now is a story in itself. Our favourite television series or movies are stories, which ultimately become a part of the public as well as legal domain. With support from an interesting story, author and screenwriter of “Totem”, Jeffrey Kennedy, says that the entire idea of penning down came after the death of his childhood friend, Clint Osthimer. His friend suffered from epilepsy and seizures that sent him to an “alternate supernatural plane”. Terming his epilepsy as a “personal demon”, Kennedy credits him as the inspiration behind such story.
Who would thought this emotional tale shall be substantiated while raising copyright infringement claims on the online streaming platform Netflix for one of its top-trending series, Stranger Things. Created and produced by the Duffer Brothers, the horror-thriller series unravel mysterious secret government experiments along with attacks of supernatural forces. Released exactly 4 years ago, the series captured international attention and consequently remained in the “Trending Now” list.
Being one of the giants of online streaming platforms, Netflix is thrashed by copyright lawsuits time and again. From Estate of Conan Doyle to brother of Pablo Escobar, and now from Irish Rover Entertainment targeting Netflix and the Duffer Brothers for lifting “almost” everything from Jeffrey Kennedy’s “Totem”. The lawsuit alleges that Netflix’s Stranger Things has imitated the “plot, sequence, characters, theme, dialogues, mood and setting, as well as copyrighted concepted art” from Totem.
A string of similarities are presented while bringing out the lawsuit including the main character. It states, “In “Totem” one of the characters is a little girl named Kimimela or Kimi for short who has supernatural powers. Kimimela helps her friends find the portal gate to an alternate supernatural plane and helps them battle the plane’s inhabitants; a dark spirit named Azrael and his army of Blackwolf”. Whereas, “In “Stranger Things”, one of the characters is a little girl named Eleven of “El” for short who has supernatural powers. Eleven helps her friends find the portal gate to an alternate supernatural plane and help them battle the plane’s inhabitants; a Shadow Monster and his army of Demogorgon”.
Surprisingly, even smallest of the details are used as accusations by the plaintiffs. Like the word “promise” at the end of a scene. Further, previous allegations against the Netflix’s series are also made part of the copyright infringement lawsuit.
“Mr Kennedy has been peddling these far-fetched conspiracy theories for years, even though Netflix has repeatedly explained to him that The Duffer Brothers had never heard of him or his unpublished script until he began threatening to sue them.” commented a Netflix representative in a statement to The Wrap. “After we refused to give in to his demands for a payoff, he filed this baseless lawsuit. There is no shortage of people who would like to claim credit for creating Stranger Things. But the truth is the show was independently conceived by The Duffer Brothers, and is the result of their creativity and hard work.”
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