Remember Fyre Festival? Many lawsuits are still pending regarding the disastrous event. As of yesterday, a copyright lawsuit against Netflix over footage being used in their Fyre Festival documentary is being dropped. The lawsuit has reached a settlement. Specifically, the lawsuit was concerning footage that Netflix had used without an attendees permission.
The suit was dropped with a notice of voluntary dismissal. The attendee Marissa Cardenas, was suing both Netflix and the documentary producer Jerry Media. She claimed that her footage was being used without her permission. Furthermore, court details don’t share any information regarding the specifics of the settlement.
The lawsuit came to light after Netflix released “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”. Notably, this documentary about the infamous Fyre Festival from 2017 was produced by Jerry Media. The documentary is staring festival organizers Billy McFarland and Ja Rule.
The Fyre Festival Disaster
However, this isn’t the first lawsuit the Fyre Festival has faced. In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit $26 million. Additionally, a massive $100 million suit has already been filed. This suit was against festival organizers Ja Rule and McFarland. The lawyer representing festival attendees in the case, Mark Geragos said:
“The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees…that was closer to ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’ than Coachella. Festival goers survived on bare rations, little more than bread and a slice of cheese, and tried to escape…in the only shelter provided…small clusters of ‘FEMA tents’…that were soaked and battered by wind and rain.”
With this in mind, Ja Rule certainly helped in organizing the event. He clearly never took responsibility. Tweeting during the unfolding of the festival, Ja Rule took to twitter:
“We are working right now on getting everyone off the island SAFE. That’s my immediate concert…I’m heartbroken at this moment. My partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event. It was NOT A SCAM as everyone is reporting…I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT. But I’m taking responsibility. I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this.”
Ja Rule Cleared For the Time Being
Fortunately for Ja Rule, a judge left him off the hook. The $100 million suit was dismissed.
However, this doesn’t close the door entirely. The judge gave the green-light for the plaintiffs to still go after the rapper. In a tweet a day before the festival launched, he stated how everything was “all set“. A federal judge said this tweet/ statement gives the opportunity for these attendees to file a new claim regarding the festival. In closing, the attendees deserve justice. For all their troubles, someone needs to be held accountable for this mess of a festival.
