Bungie awarded $4.3 million in case against Destiny 2 cheat seller

[midian182]

What just happened? The long-running legal battle between Bungie and cheat-maker AimJunkies in which both sides launched lawsuits against each other has seen a win for the game developer. Bungie has been awarded $4.3 million in arbitration, though the copyright infringement aspects of the case are still headed to trial later this year.

Bungie launched its lawsuit against cheat seller AimJunkies.com and the alleged creators of the Destiny 2 hack software, Phoenix Digital Group, in 2021, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.

TorrentFreak writes that AimJunkies argued that cheating isn't against the law. It tried to avoid the copyright infringement allegations by noting that some of the referenced copyrights were registered after the cheats were made available on its website.

US District Court Judge Thomas Zilly mainly ruled in AimJunkies' favor last year, deciding that Bungie didn't offer enough evidence to support its copyright infringement claim. However, the court did allow Bungie to amend its original complaint, which is expected to go to trial later this year.

The parts of the case not related to copyright were referred to arbitration by Zilly, including allegations that the cheats violated the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision and were illegally sold to third parties.

Arbitration Judge Ronald Cox decided that AimJunkies and Destiny 2 Hacks developer James May were guilty of DMCA violations based on evidence that they bypassed Bungie's technical protection measures. May previously testified to connecting reverse engineering tools to Destiny 2 to create cheats for the game.

May also admitted that after Bungie banned him for these actions, he attempted to bypass the bans and circumvent the protections Bungie had in place to prevent reverse engineering.

May is not an employee of AimJunkies or its parent company Phoenix Digital Group, but since they sold and profited from his creation, the two entities are liable. They're also liable for selling the loader used to inject cheats into Destiny 2.

AimJunkies sold over 1,000 copies of the cheats and over 1,000 copies of the cheat loader. Cox noted that AimJunkies owner David Shaefer tried to conceal the exact number of sales. "Given respondents' egregious and willful conduct, including their ongoing concealment of sales, Bungie is entitled to the full statutory damages available," Cox wrote.

Bungie was awarded $3.65 million for the DMCA-related violations and $700,000 for fees and other costs, bringing the total to $4,396,222.

AimJunkies has countersued Bungie over accusations the developer violated its ToS and breached the terms of its contract for reverse-engineering its cheat software. Bungie will use its success in the arbitration to defend itself against the counterclaim.

AimJunkies had also accused Bungie of hacking May's personal machine, a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but that claim was dismissed last year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97678-bungie-awarded-43-million-case-against-destiny-2.html

 

[Dunkerton]

I hope Battlestate Games can do the same with the cheat sellers in Escape From Tarkov. Game is amazing minus the cheaters.

 

[dangh]

Very happy hearing that. Cheaters are cancer of competitive pvp.

 

[AxelAminoff]

I have given up on online gaming altogether because of cheaters. I hope these cheaters will be bankrupted for life.

 

[tellmewhy]

First of all, they cannot write EULAs that violate the Constitution and the Consumer Protection laws. Second, they're going to "take" 4 million from someone who doesn't even have 40k, force Aim bots to be free (they exist because there's a demand), and scare gamers into paying potentially millions if, for example, they share a gameplay video and violate the DMCA.

"Huge" win, they just took the game and are forcing it straight into bankruptcy because they just wanted to go to court to pretend to be smart. Fortnite is generating billions in revenue because it was a trend on YT, and the network effects it creates.

They will see it and in the stock prices how “huge” win that was.

If there is a problem with the software they should fix the software not go to court, if they can't fix the software then they still have a problem in the software which obviously can't be solved in court.

 

[Kotters]

First of all, they cannot write EULAs that violate the Constitution and the Consumer Protection laws. Second, they're going to "take" 4 million from someone who doesn't even have 40k, force Aim bots to be free (they exist because there's a demand), and scare gamers into paying potentially millions if, for example, they share a gameplay video and violate the DMCA.

"Huge" win, they just took the game and are forcing it straight into bankruptcy because they just wanted to go to court to pretend to be smart. Fortnite is generating billions in revenue because it was a trend on YT, and the network effects it creates.

They will see it and in the stock prices how “huge” win that was.

If there is a problem with the software they should fix the software not go to court, if they can't fix the software then they still have a problem in the software which obviously can't be solved in court.

Sorry you can't cheat anymore

 

[winjer]

More cheat makers need to be sue and bankrupted, to make an example out of them.
Maybe this way we can reduce the amount of cheaters in online games.

 

[Notmare]

As cheats can effectively reduce a game's player count, resulting in a loss of potential revenue, how is that considered with cases like these?

 

[tellmewhy]

As cheats can effectively reduce a game's player count, resulting in a loss of potential revenue, how is that considered with cases like these?

The way I would fix this problem is by providing slight aiming assistance on targets that are mid-range, so it's not too hard for casual players to shoot and from the constant frustration of the disappointment to trying to find aim robots, and I would add randomness to shooting at moving (not stationary) targets at long range where the target is a few pixels on the screen and it's practically impossible for a human to aim at a moving target that far away. This way even with an aim bot that locks the target to the correct pixel the shots will miss due to the added randomness. Players will not be frustrated (the game is for entertainment not a strict simulation) because they will not expect to hit the target from that distance anyway and will be positively surprised when by random factor they hit it even if they didn't aim 100% correctly but they will not be able to repeat it in a continuous way. After all the players should be encouraged to be at close to medium distances so they can see the textures, the reactions, hear the sounds etc

I thought about it now in 1 minute, it's the solution to the most prominent problem of billions dollar industry. There are hundreds of experienced people there, who have been making fps games all their lives, and they can't think of a game mechanic like this?