The full story of Netflix Fortitude Lawsuit

Producer Simon Afram is suing Netflix for $105 million, claiming a hard drive with his unreleased Nicolas Cage film 'Fortitude' was stolen from Netflix's Hollywood studios.

The unencrypted master copy of 'Fortitude', a World War II drama, was delivered to Netflix in June at its request; nine days later, Netflix emailed that drives were stolen.

Afram invested more than $45 million in 'Fortitude', which took seven years to complete, and was trying to sell the film to Netflix or another distributor.

The lawsuit argues the film's value has been destroyed because distributors are unlikely to buy a movie that could appear on piracy sites.

Netflix disputes the claim, saying it does not own the rights to 'Fortitude' and that the film was delivered without industry-standard safeguards; it says it has investigated and monitored piracy sites.

Producers Simon Afram and his company filed a $105 million lawsuit against Netflix after an unencrypted hard drive containing the film 'Fortitude' was stolen from Netflix's office at Sunset Bronson Studios.

The unencrypted digital cinema package was hand-delivered by a producer on June 15 and stolen within 10 days; other stolen drives were empty, but 'Fortitude' copy was not recovered.

Netflix's head of film acquisitions Sean Berney acknowledged the theft in a June 25 email, saying security teams had no luck recovering the drives.

Producers argue the theft jeopardizes distribution deals and the film's awards campaign, as prospective distributors must be informed of the stolen unencrypted copy, increasing piracy risk.

Netflix contends the film was delivered without adequate industry protections, spotlighting security flaws in film distribution methods.