City of London Police have arrested three individuals for allegedly violating Disney’s copyright over a fan-made recreation of the Club Penguin online game.
Created in 2005, Club Penguin was an online multiplayer game for children, where users could play as a cartoon penguin avatar and play games and socialise with friends. The site was purchased by Disney, but shut down in 2017.
As a result, fan-made clones, such as Club Penguin Rewritten, popped up online to allow people to continue to enjoy the popular game. Despite amassing around 10 million users since its launch, the website for Club Penguin Rewritten shut down last week, after an investigation was launched into the violation of Disney’s copyright.
THEYRE KILLING CLUB PENGUIN REWRITTEN pic.twitter.com/uzheGFfT2d
— 𝕰𝖑𝖎𝖟𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖍 (@COSMOSAZTEC1) April 13, 2022
as of within 10 minutes ago, looks like Disney had Club Penguin Rewritten shut down immediately. it sucks, but hopefully the community can still stick together. few images of mine showing just that pic.twitter.com/UomD37Wlk1
— HomeByMidnight (@Cozyhoodies) April 13, 2022
The website has now been seized by the City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). Detective Constably Daryl Fryatt confirmed in a statement that they had arrested three people on April 12th “on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright,” although they were released under investigation.
In a post on the official Club Penguin Rewritten Discord chat server, which had 14,000 members, an admin confirmed that the Disney had requested the copyright investigation, and that they voluntarily gave control over the website to the police.
BigChun, an in-game moderator for Club Penguin Rewritten, speculated to Gizmodo that Disney had gone after the site because of adverts that were placed on “certain parts of the game,” in order to pay for site upkeep.
One of the co-founders of the original Club Penguin game, Lane Merrifield, attacked Disney for chasing after the fan-made game on Twitter. “They still don’t understand that controlling IP at the expense of the community will devalue it, not preserve it,” he argued, calling their decision “disappointing.”
They still don’t understand that controlling IP at the expense of the community will devalue it, not preserve it. It’s their prerogative, but it’s still disappointing. https://t.co/eU37MpXIx9
— Lane Merrifield (@lanemerrifield) April 14, 2022
In 2020, another clone of Club Penguin, Club Penguin Online, was shut down. A BBC investigation found that players on the site were “engaging in ‘penguin e-sex’, sending and receiving explicit messages,” with “strip club igloos” and virtual penguin “pimps” being seen by young users.
