Netflix announced today that it is suing Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical — a project the streamer originally fully supported, when it was just a very effective fan-made marketing piece for the well-received romantic show . Let’s flashback for a second to early 2021, when Barlow and Bear first began exploring, on TikTok, the idea of ​​expanding their love of Netflix’s sexy period drama into a musical. The project quickly garnered fans, including Bridgerton author Julia Quinn and Netflix itself, which promoted their efforts on social media. (It’s smart marketing, after all, to show how much passion fans can bring to your IP.) The streamer even went so far as to give Barlow and Bear permission to release an actual album — making some of the newest Grammy winners in the history of the award and some of the first ever to win in a musical theater category without actually, you know, staging their show as musical theater. The rub seems to have come when Barlow and Bear decided to change that last bit last week, putting TUBM (as “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album Live in Concert”) on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and charging as $150 for tickets. (And also, as Deadline notes, it competes with Netflix’s own plans for a live-action Bridgerton experience.) And just like that, Netflix went from “Aren’t these fans great” to “This is ours, morons” in a flash, accusing Barlow and Bear of falsely claiming they had permission to upload the show. (Unlike the license they apparently had to release the album, we have a feeling this might be legally difficult, since Barlow and Bear can apparently claim they were just doing a live performance of songs they already had permission to release.) (If we’re being honest, Netflix’s claims here seem… pretty hard to argue with.) So far, neither artist has responded to the lawsuit, which also claims they’re planning to tour and sell merchandise related to the show, which apparently it would only strengthen Netflix’s claims. If nothing else, it’s a grim little reminder that companies love fan art and engagement… as long as they don’t give the impression they’re fucking their money.