The Satanic Temple's $50 million lawsuit claims the group's copyright was infringed as the streaming giant allegedly used a replica of its Baphomet with Children statute.
- Nov 9, 2018
AceShowbiz - Netlix and Warner Bros. Entertainment are facing a lawsuit from The Satanic Temple who takes issue of their use of a statue on the streaming giant's new series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina". The Satanist group's $50 million lawsuit claims the group's copyright was infringed as Netflix allegedly used a replica of its Baphomet with Children statute on the new series.
"This case presents, among other things, a textbook example of the hornbook explanation of copyright protection that copyright law protects unique expressions, but not the ideas themselves," said lawyer Bruce Lederman in a complaint filed in federal court on Thursday, November 8 in New York District Court.
"What makes this case particularly striking and significant is that it arises in the context of Defendants who are highly sophisticated media production and distribution companies which blatantly misappropriated Plaintiff's unique expression of an idea even though they have a long history of vigorously protecting their own intellectual property," he added.
In its latest episode, "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" featured a goat-headed deity called Baphomet. TST founder, Lucien Greaves, claims that the design of the statue bears uncanny resemblance to the group's copyrighted artwork that it designed and commissioned for in 2013-2014.
Yes, we are taking legal action regarding #TheChillingAdventuresofSabrina appropriating our copyrighted monument design to promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction.
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 29, 2018
Greaves took to Twitter to compare the two statues, which featured a deity with a young boy and girl looking up at him. "For purposes of comparison..." he captioned the post.
For purposes of comparison... pic.twitter.com/AZJvmq1Cks
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 30, 2018
TST alleges that the statue was created "to promote First Amendment values of separation of church and state and equal protection." Also stated in the lawsuit, the group believes that Netflix's "prominent use of symbol as the central focal point of the school associated with evil, cannibalism and murder blurs and tarnishes the TST Baphomet with Children as a mark of TST."
