The Satanic Temple is suing Netflix and Warner Bros. for allegedly giving it a bad name.
The Temple filed a lawsuit Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan over Netflix’s new show, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.” The nontheistic group says the show infringed on its copyright of its statue, “Baphomet with Chilrdren.”
They’re also suing over trademark violation and injury to the business’ reputation, and are requesting an injunction to stop the distribution of the series with the image of the statue.
The Temple claims a Baphomet statue featured on the show was copied directly from a bronze statue the Temple designed roughly five years ago. You might remember it as the statue brought to the Arkansas State Capitol in August in protest of a Ten Commandments monument that was installed earlier this year.
But the lawsuit is just as much about copyright as it is about reputation. The Temple argues the show portrays it in a negative and false light. It says Netflix and Warner Bros. “misappropriated” the statue by associating it with evil and activities counter to what the Temple believes.
“The reason the statue was commissioned was to be a symbol that they could bring out when they felt government wasn’t separating church and state,” said Bruce Lederman, the lawyer for the Satanic Temple.
But in “Sabrina,” the lawsuit argues, the statue is an evil symbol representing the show’s antagonists. The statue sits at the center of the academy where Sabrina is sent to learn magic, and it is considered a homage to the “Dark Lord,” whom Sabrina is fighting against.
Mr. Lederman said the concern is that the next time the temple uses its statue to send a message about the separation of church and state, people may associate it with the television show instead.
The Satanic Temple designed the statue, called “Baphomet With Children,” about five years ago as a response to religious displays on public property. In 2015, the Satanic Temple pushed to install a bronze statue of Baphomet — hooves, horns and all — to counter a Ten Commandments display at the Oklahoma Capitol. (The state Supreme Court later outlawed the Ten Commandments display from appearing there.)
The group is seeking at least $50 million in damages for each charge. As of Friday afternoon, Netflix and Warner Bros. have yet to comment.
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