Disney Files Copyright Claims against Club Penguin Online
“Original is Simply the Best”, this is one statement we all can agree to. Be it movies, songs, comics or even video games, original content had an incontestable charm to itself which seems to be missing in the updated proceeding versions. In here, we are talking about Disney’s classic 2007 video game ‘Club Penguin’ that got shut in 2018. Not very long ago, Disney’s legal department issued a DMCA notice against one such clone of the classic game, Club Penguin Online, for operating under “unauthorized terms” and also containing “infringing copyright graphics” on the website.
The Walt Disney’s beloved Club Penguin, is known for being one of the most popular video game of the decade, having millions of fan-following. Launched in the year 2007, the game broke millions of hearts when it was officially taken down in 2017. Disney’s efforts to make a better version in ‘Club Penguin Island’ also failed as many criticized for lack of features and effects, which were a part of the original game. Well, after this screw-up, people started cloning the idea and began launching their own unlicensed versions of the game, only Club Penguin Online succeeded to step upon the pedestal set-out by the original game. This unauthorized recreation received utmost popularity with a user base of over 8 million members. The game was designed for children between the ages of 6–14; however, owing to lack of monitoring, the dirty dark side was exposed to such children.
Shocking revelations came in when BBC investigated upon the same and found that this unlicensed fan-made recreation failed proper monitoring as a result of which, the platform was flooded with racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and sexual messages. In addition, upon further investigation, a London-based man related to the website was found in possession of child-abuse/ child pornographic images.
After all this, Disney was left with no option but to takedown the website. In this regard, Disney filed a copyright claim under Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) stating, Club Penguin Online “is an unauthorized version of the Club Penguin game and contains infringing copyrighted content”. The illicit website (www.cponline.pw) went dark earlier this week, after the said notice.
Disney in a statement to BBC said, “Child safety is a top priority for the Walt Disney Company and we are appalled by the allegations of criminal activity and abhorrent behavior on this unauthorized website that is illegally using the Club Penguin brand and characters for its own purposes.” Further adding, “We continue to enforce our rights against this, and other, unauthorized uses of the Club Penguin game.”
