“Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU have seized a gaming website as part of an ongoing investigation into the site,” Fryatt says. The logo of the City of London Police sat at the top of the website, and underneath it was a stark message: “This site has been taken over by Operation Creative, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).”ĭetective Constable Daryl Fryatt of the City of London Police confirms to Input that three people were arrested on April 12 and subsequently released under investigation on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright. On April 13, users expecting to visit the usual colorful world of Club Penguin Rewritten were suddenly confronted with something altogether different: The site had literally gone dark. Club Penguin Rewritten was a way to preserve cherished online memories without the fear of closure at the whims of a private, profit-focused company like Disney.

Launched a month before Club Penguin itself shut down, Club Penguin Rewritten (one of several fan-made alternatives) was a private server that offered much of the same functionality that the original did. For a generation of children, Club Penguin was their entry onto the internet - and they weren’t willing to let it go as adults.

Club penguin