Satanic Temple Founder Lucien Greaves announced his organization would take legal action against Netflix for using the Baphomet statue in its new series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
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
I’m amazed that anybody is confused as to why we would seek legal remedy over Sabrina using our monument. 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?
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 29, 2018
I’m not confused and I also find it interesting how many people seemed confused.
Simple issue; big production company stole the work of an artist & the organization that had the art commissioned. Then used said art to further spread negative stereotypes of the org.
— ️Miss NoniShaney️ (@GoGoogleMe) October 29, 2018
Creationist Ken Ham found Greaves’ position ironic.
So Satanists, who are atheists (& very religious people), stole the concepts of Satan, Church, Temple, Bible, etc., FROM the Bible (God’s Word) & are now upset that supposedly people steal from them? The devil always tries to counterfeit what God has done https://t.co/SYNueK94lq
— Ken Ham (@aigkenham) November 1, 2018
Although Baphomet, a goat-headed person with horns, dates to the early 14th century, images and likenesses have been recreated hundreds of years. The particular statue depicted in Sabrina looks eerily similar to the one the Satanic Temple commissioned in 2014.
The Detroit chapter of the Temple unveiled the statue in 2015.
According to Time:
The statue itself is impressive: almost nine feet tall, and weighing in at around a ton. The horned idol sits on a throne adorned with a pentagram, but it is the idol’s wings, and not his chair, that curiously evoke the Iron Throne from a certain celebrated HBO fantasy series. He has the jarring horns of a virile ram but the biceps of a guy who lifts four or five times a week. His legs, which are crossed, end not in feet but in hooves. It might seem more menacing if not for the two bronze-statue children standing on either side of him — a girl on his left; a boy on his right; both are looking up at him earnestly.
A similar statue appears in the show.
For purposes of comparison… pic.twitter.com/AZJvmq1Cks
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 30, 2018
Greaves spoke to the San Francisco Gate about the case.
“It’s deeply problematic to us,” Greaves says. “(But) even if that wasn’t the case we’d be obligated to make a copyright claim because that’s how copyright works.”
He continues: “It’s distressing on the grounds that you have to worry about that association being made where people will see your monument and not know which preceded the other and thinking that you arbitrarily decided to go with the Sabrina design for your Baphomet monument, which rather cheapens our central icon.”
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