A documentary filmmaker and Swiss company claim their works featuring Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, known as Osho, were used without permission in the Netflix docuseries, writes Ashley Cullins. Published in The Hollywood Reporter on January 31, 2019. (Our post also includes the Court document.)
Netflix has been hit with a copyright infringement over its cult hit docuseries Wild Wild Country.
The Osho International Foundation and filmmaker Michael Hilow on Thursday sued Netflix, along with Duplass Brothers Productions and directors Chapman Way and Maclain Way, claiming the docuseries used a substantial amount of their footage without consent.
Osho is described in the complaint as a Swiss company that publishes, licenses and archives the work of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the controversial guru at the center of the Netflix series. Hilow directed a 1993 documentary called Rajneeshpuram an Experiment to Provoke God. Scenes from that film, along with three works controlled by Osho International, are shown in Wild Wild Country, according to the complaint.
The first episode alone contains 88 separate “instances of appropriation,” totaling more than 12 minutes, according to the complaint.
Osho International and Hilow are asking the court to grant an injunction barring Netflix from further infringing their copyrights and are seeking damages and disgorgement of the streamer’s profits.
Netflix has not yet responded to a request for comment on the complaint.
Related film review by Viramo on Osho News: Rajneespuram: An Experiment to Provoke God
Osho v Netflix by on Scribd
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