The Satanic Temple has settled its copyright lawsuit against Netflix Inc and Warner Bros Entertainment over their alleged misuse of its goat-headed deity statue in the series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a Warner spokesman said on Wednesday.
The settlement was amicable, and resolves a November 8 lawsuit in which the Satanic Temple had sought at least $50 million of damages. Terms were not disclosed.
Lawyers for the Satanic Temple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Netflix spokesman referred requests for comment to Warner Bros, a unit of AT&T Inc.
The Satanic Temple, which is based in Salem, Massachusetts and also known as the United Federation of Churches LLC, describes itself as a promoter of benevolence and empathy among people rejecting tyrannical authority.
It complained that Sabrina misappropriated its statue Baphomet with Children in a manner implying that it stood for evil, and that the depiction hurt its reputation.
The Satanic Temple's founder, Lucien Greaves, said in a blog post that many people had supported its copyright claim. But he said: 'Surprisingly, to me, however, there were also a large number of people who flooded us with hate mail and armchair legal analysis.'
He said the organisation had been accused of trying to '"ruin" a show that "just tries to bring joy into the world".'
Greaves concluded: 'So ends one of the most overpublicized of copyright claims. Press can now stop pretending this was unique and momentous, or even interesting. So, too, hopefully ends the parade of stupidity from online amateur legal experts.'
The first 10 episodes of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina were released on October 26.
Netflix distributes and Warner Bros produces the series, which stars Kiernan Shipka as the teenage half-witch, half-human title character. The series is based on the Sabrina comic book series from Archie Comics.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
