December 23, 2025

Diddy and Netflix: Truth? Consequences?

By Emily Poler

Why kick back and watch a documentary as a normal person would — to pass some time, maybe learn a few things — when you can analyze its legal issues as an IP litigator? Welcome to my world, where I recently watched Sean Combs: The Reckoning on Netflix, a four-part series that angered its subject, the rapper/producer/felon aka Diddy, enough to have his attorneys send a cease and desist letter to the streaming platform. Having seen the show, I have thoughts on the dispute. 

The putative documentary, which premiered at the beginning of December, tells the story — or at least, a story — of how Diddy became one of the most powerful and successful men in hip-hop, his connection to the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls), accusations of sexual assault and abuse, his trial for racketeering and sex trafficking, and his eventual imprisonment (Diddy is currently serving 50 months in jail). 

In the letter, Diddy’s lawyers air a number of grievances about the series, and we’ll get to those in a minute. First, though, let’s talk about what Diddy demands: That “Netflix cease and desist from the publication of the so-called ‘documentary’ titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning.” My thought: that’s never, ever going to happen. As Diddy’s lawyers presumably knew when they sent the letter, prior restraint of the media — government action to prevent speech before it actually happens — is really, really, really, disfavored. That means that there was a close-to-zero percent chance that a court would direct Netflix to not air the documentary; as a result, there was little reason for Netflix to pull the plug.

As indicated above, Diddy claims the series is less a documentary and more of a “hit piece,” crafted by his longtime nemesis, executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, as the latest salvo in his “irrational fixation on destroying Mr. Combs’s reputation.” What’s more, Diddy accuses Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos of abetting 50 in retaliation for Diddy’s refusal a few years ago to participate in a Netflix series about his life because Sarandos refused to give Diddy creative control over the project. Diddy’s lawyers call the new doc “corporate retribution.” 

In a more specific accusation, and one that piqued my interest as an IP attorney, Diddy’s lawyers also claim that some of the footage of Diddy used in the series belongs to Diddy and was obtained in violation of contracts and copyright protections. 

Netflix, naturally, has denied all of Diddy’s allegations. Now, whether or not that is honest, given the streamer’s past failures to adequately vet projects prior to release (see here and here), I have no reason to think that Netflix verified the truth of the contents of the series, or their legal rights to materials included in it, before its release. What does that mean? If I had to guess, it means that if (when?) Diddy sues Netflix, the complaint might survive a motion to dismiss. This seems particularly likely given 50 Cent’s involvement and their long, antagonistic history together. 

So let’s talk about the accusations that some of the footage in the series was illegally obtained. For those of you who haven’t seen the documentary or any discussion of it on social media, the doc opens with video of Diddy on the phone with his lawyer and contains other footage of Diddy just prior to his criminal indictment. (The scene with Diddy literally taking a jacket off a fan’s back is so cringe.) It appears that this footage was filmed by a third party at Diddy’s behest, but, according to a Diddy spokesperson, “was created for an entirely different purpose, under an arrangement that was never completed, and no rights were ever transferred to Netflix.” The spokesperson implies there was a payment dispute between Diddy and whoever filmed him, and the footage ended up in the documentary producers’ hands without Diddy’s permission. Netflix responded claiming the footage was legally obtained, and presumably, in any lawsuit, they will also claim that their use of this footage was fair use and, therefore, non-infringing. 

Even if there was some form of confidentiality agreement between Diddy and the third party who shot the footage, can Diddy use that agreement to stop Netflix from streaming the documentary? Short answer: nope. Longer answer: If he could wield the confidentiality agreement as such, he would have already sought a temporary restraining order.

Taking a broader view of the dispute, are the allegations against DIddy in the documentary defamatory? Among other things, the documentary claims that Diddy had some responsibility for The Notorious B.I.G.’s death in a Los Angeles drive-by shooting, alleging that Diddy had brought Biggie to LA despite warnings he would be in danger, and kept him there instead of letting him leave for a trip to London. If those allegations are false, then Diddy potentially has a claim for defamation, but if they’re true, then the documentary’s allegations aren’t defamatory. As a result, assuming Diddy does sue Netflix and/or 50 Cent, it will be really interesting to see which statements he claims are false. 

And if Diddy does sue, this may be a situation where even if he wins, he loses, because he will have to produce evidence that the doc’s statements are false, while Netflix and/or the producers will get to counter with their own evidence. Moreover, because the purpose of defamation claims is to protect a person’s reputation and Diddy’s reputation is, ummm, pretty much in the toilet already, he could end up walking away with exactly zero dollars even if he was able to win on a defamation claim.

For now, the only shots fired are the letter and Netflix’s response, but if the matter does march on to a lawsuit, I’ll be back with updates.