Three people have been arrested by City of London Police for running an unofficial version of Disney's game 'Club Penguin'. The website, which claimed to have millions of registered members, was taken down after a request from Disney.
The suspects have been released while police investigate copyright offences, the BBC reported.
Disney's Club Penguin was launched in 2005 and became one of the first social networks for children. A 2020 BBC investigation into another unofficial clone of the game, 'Club Penguin Online', revealed players simulating sex and exchanging racist and anti-Semitic abuse.
Its popularity sky-rocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, growing to approximately seven million registered players. Clones of the game have popped up ever since through the use of stolen or copied source code, and can easily be discovered by children searching the internet.
One player, who spent time on both the original and cloned sites, told the BBC: "The game had been booming ever since Club Penguin Online's [CPO] shutdown, as that is where the CPO player population migrated to. However, that may have worked against them in the end."
Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt, from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police, said: "Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU have seized a gaming website as part of an ongoing investigation into the site. Three people were arrested on April 12 on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright, and searches were carried out."
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