Why was Club Penguin Rewritten shut down? Three people arrested on suspicion of copyright infringement

Club Penguin Rewritten has been shut down over copyright infringement by Disney. (Image via club_penguin_rewritten/ Instagram)

The popular role-playing game (RPG) Club Penguin Rewritten has been shut down by Disney over accusations of copyright infringement. On April 13, users who logged on to the RPG's website were met with a black screen and a message by the City of London police that the site had been taken over by them, leaving fans dejected.

Further, according to reports, the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit revealed in a statement that three people were arrested on suspicion of distributing material infringing copyright. A developing story right now, the roots of which were planted in the early 2000s when the original RPG was created.

---

What was Club Penguin, and why was it “rewritten”

In 2005, Club Penguin was created as a multiplayer game in which players could choose their cute penguin avatars and live a comfortable life decorating their igloos, playing games, etc.

The game, which rapidly developed into an online community — especially for GenZ kids growing up — was bought by Disney. Per reports, the purchase made the game even more famous, attracting millions of users. But all did not go well in the penguin verse as Disney shut down the game in 2017, citing a declining response.

This irked the established base of players the game had built. The same year, a fan-made version of the game, with tweaks and tricks of its own, was launched. The game was Club Penguin Rewritten. After serving the game's followers for about five years, the game was recently shut down.

Many messages on the game's Discord channel were removed with a single message from the administrator: "CPRewritten is shutting down effective immediately due to a full request by Disney. We have voluntarily given control over the website to the police for them to continue their copyright investigation."

---

Club Penguin fans are unhappy with the shutdown

Fans of the game have been upset with the loss of the RPG. Here are a few reactions from the game's fans and players.

The news of the three people’s arrest in connection with the copyright infringement investigation has thickened the plot. The police statement also stated that the three people arrested were later released and were to aid the police in their investigation since players are curious to know why Disney decided to take action now.

The RPG’s in-game moderator BigChun had a strong guess. BigChun told Gizmodo:

“Of course, running a game like this costs money. So the ads were placed on certain parts of the game. We, or at least I, assume that’s how Disney got us.”

Game players and followers on Reddit suggested that Club Penguin Rewritten’s bid to make money through advertisements using intellectual property that didn’t originally belong to them was why Disney took strong action against them.

Per Gizmodo, it is worth noting that these advertisements were first placed on the website in 2020, two years back.

While there have been plenty of debates and discussions on why the website met a tragic fate, it remains to be seen how the legal investigation against the imitated game proceeds.