One week ago, it was reported that the Salem-based Satanic Temple was planning to take legal action against Netflix over the "Dark Lord" statue that's prominently on display Academy of Unseen Arts in “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” because of its likeness to The Satanic Temple's Baphomet statue.
“Yes, we are taking legal action regarding #TheChillingAdventuresofSabrina appropriating our copyrighted monument design to promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction. I’m amazed that anybody is confused as to why we would seek legal remedy over Sabrina using our monument," tweeted co-founder and spokesperson Lucien Greaves. "Would they be as understanding of a fictional show that used a real mosque as the HQ of a terrorist cell? A fictional Blood Libel tale implicating real world Jews?”
Greaves also tweeted out a photo comparing the two statues (see below). At the time, he stated that he wanted Netflix to digitally remove the statue of the "Dark Lord" from the show. Of course, Netflix didn't and now, one week later, The Satanic Temple has slammed Netflix and Warner Bros. with a $50 million lawsuit, Deadline reports.
"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,” lawyer Bruce Lederman said on behalf of the Temple in a complaint filed in federal court this morning (read it here). “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.”
The main issue being that The Satanic Temple feels "Chilling Adventures" misappropriates their image, using it to depict evil doings and tarnishing their values. They go on to say, the “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.”