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9 November 2018Copyright

Satanist group sues Netflix and Warner Bros over ‘Sabrina’

Religious and political group The Satanic Temple yesterday sued Netflix and Warner Bros for $50 million in an IP complaint centring on a monument that appears in newly-released TV series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”.

The US group’s complaint (pdf), filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, comes shortly after The Satanic Temple’s co-founder Lucien Greaves confirmed that the group was taking legal action against Netflix.

“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”, produced by Warner Bros and distributed by Netflix, follows the life of Sabrina Spellman, a half-witch, half-mortal. The horror show features a monument of Baphomet, a horned deity with a human body.

According to the complaint, the depiction of Baphomet—a false God associated with Satanism and the occult—in “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” infringes The Satanic Temple’s copyright covering the sculpture.

The Satanic Temple is an organisation “designed to encourage benevolence and empathy among people rejecting tyrannical authority, advocating practical and common-sense justice, and undertaking noble pursuits guided by individual will”, the suit explained.

The group unveiled a 2.7 metre bronze sculpture of Baphomet (copyright registrations VA 2-116-0092 and VA 002124601) in Detroit, Michigan, in 2015, and the monument shown in “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is allegedly a direct replica of this design.

Both The Satanic Temple’s sculpture and the monument featured in the TV show include two children looking up at Baphomet, which is pointing two fingers towards the sky. The group claimed that the show “unquestionably copied” the sculpture, and “the similarities are no coincidence”.

Extensive world-wide publicity and media coverage made the Baphomet statue famous, The Satanic Temple said, and the statue is “inextricably linked” with the group.

In the show, the Baphomet monument is prominently used as “the central focal point of the school associated with evil, cannibalism and possibly murder”. Such an association injures The Satanic Temple’s business, the group said.

As well as the show itself, the group’s complaint took issue with show’s advertising, which “prominently” features, benefits from and defames The Satanic Temple’s Baphomet work.

Netflix and Warner Bros were notified of the copyright violation last month, the complaint said, but the organisations have not responded.

The Satanic Temple’s claims against Netflix and Warner Bros include copyright infringement, false description, and trademark dilution.

The group has asked the court for injunctive relief and at least $50 million in damages.

This is not the first time Netflix has been involved in a horror-related IP case.

Last year, Netflix sent a themed cease-and-desist letter to an unauthorised “Stranger Things” bar in view of the company’s rights to the science-fiction series.

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