Netflix is being sued over highly-popular series Outer Banks with an author claiming that the streaming giant had stole the characters and plot of his novel.

Jeff Wilson has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Netflix as he alleges that their highly-popular teen drama draws way too many similarities to a book he published in 2013 titled Queen Anne’s Revenge. According to the legal documents obtained by the site Wilson claims the novel he published follows four friends on a treasure hunt from a famous shipwreck near the outer banks of North Carolina much like the plot of the series.

He also claims that the Outer Banks creators  Jonas Pate, Josh Pate and Shannon Burke have admitted to relying on other books and authors for inspiration to write the American action-adventure mystery teen drama. In addition Wilson also believes that the main cast of the series and their character arcs are nearly identical to the book even going as far as to say that the plot points and settings are also very similar. The author is asking that Netflix transfer over any profits that they had made from allegedly infringing on his novel in addition to an injunction which would stop Netflix from distributing or advertising Outer Banks. 

This is not the first time that Netflix has been accused of ripping off the concept for Outer Banks as independently-published author K.W. Wooten sued Netflix and the creators of Outer Banks for ‘stealing’ the plot of their teen drama, which started streaming April 15. In 2016, Wooten released Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure! about four young adults discovering buried treasure from a fabled shipwreck along North Carolina’s outer banks. ‘The archetypes of his protagonists and those of the show are almost identical,’ the lawsuit claimed. ‘And so are the villains – namely, a rich benefactor and a corrupt cop. He also says the plot is virtually the same … including clues they find and places it leads them to.’  However the suit was later dismissed after a judge did not find sufficient enough similarities between the two works.