A group of Satanists who sued Netflix and Warner Bros for $50 (£38) million have settled for an “undisclosed figure”, following their copyright claim over the TV show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

The Satanic Temple had issues with the Hollywood production company and streaming site using an icon of the goat-headed deity Baphomet that the group created in 2014 in four episodes of the teen thriller.

On Wednesday, the group revealed they had settled the lawsuit but added that the exact figure they agreed on will remain confidential.

In a statement, they said: “The Satanic Temple is pleased to announce that the lawsuit it recently filed against and Netflix has been amicably settled.

“The unique elements of the Satanic Temple’s Baphomet statue have been acknowledged in the credits of episodes which have already been filmed.

“The remaining terms of the settlement are subject to a confidentiality agreement.”

Who are The Satanic Temple?

The Satanic Temple is “a nontheistic religious and political activist group” based in Salem, Massachusetts. There are also several “chapter groups”, the largest of which is in Detroit.

The group was co-founded in 2012 by Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves who said they initially set it up as a satanic faith-based organisation “that met all the Bush administration’s criteria for receiving funds, but was repugnant to them.”

Its stated mission is “to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people” and it uses satanic imagery to promote egalitarianism, social justice and the separation of church and state.

Do they actually believe in Satan?

In short, no. The Temple uses the literary idea of Satan as a metaphor to disrupt societal thinking. It promotes pragmatic skepticism, rational reciprocity, personal autonomy, and curiosity. The group uses Satan more as a symbol representing a rebel figure against arbitrary authority and social norms.

“The Temple uses the literary idea of Satan as a metaphor to almost disrupt societal thinking”

What has the Temple done?

Since 2012, the group have:

• publicly opposed The Westboro Baptist Church
• advocated on behalf of children in public school to abolish corporal punishment
• applied for equal representation where religious monuments are placed on public property
• provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict women’s reproductive autonomy
• exposed fraudulent harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners and claims in mental health care
• and applied to hold clubs along side other religious after school clubs in schools besieged by proselytising organisations

What’s the row about their Baphomet statue?

In 2015, The Satanic Temple unveiled a 2.7 m tall bronze sculpture depicting Baphomet, in Detroit, Michigan, that had been paid for by crowdfunding the previous year.

The one-ton sculpture shows Baphomet, with a human body and a goat’s head, with a boy and a girl. At the unveiling, Time Magazine noted it was “not a deity — he stands for rationality, for skepticism, for speaking truth to power, even at great personal cost.

“Call it Libertarian Gothic, maybe — some darker permutation of Ayn Rand’s crusade for free will. One witnesses in The Satanic Temple militia a certain knee-jerk reaction to encroachments upon personal liberties, especially when those encroachments come with a crucifix in hand. The Baphomet statue is the Satanic Temple’s defiant retort du jour.”

When the same figure appeared in this year’s production of Netflix show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – a reboot of the show from the ’90s, with Kiernan Shipka in the lead role – without producers contacting the group for permission, the Temple sued for $50 million.

The Satanic Temple accused the companies of “copyright infringement, false designation of original, false description; and forbidden dilution under trademark dilution, and Injury to Business reputation under New York General Business Law.”

They also said that the statue – which they created – implied it stood for evil in the series.