Bungie sued AimJunkies for $4.4 million after a judge found cheat makers violated the DMCA by circumventing Destiny 2 protections, reverse-engineering the game to develop cheats and selling them to players. Won an arbitration award for the dollar.
Starting in 2020, Bungie has released attorneys against multiple Destiny 2 cheat makers, including PerfectAim. (opens in new tab)GatorCheats (opens in new tab)and ring-1 (opens in new tab)But trouble arose against AimJunkies in May 2022 when a judge dismissed the copyright infringement portion (opens in new tab) Regarding Bungie’s claim: AimJunkies claims that its software is independently created and does not constitute an “unauthorized copy,” and the judge said Bungie could not prove otherwise. I ruled that it was not.
However, the judge granted Bungie permission to refile its complaint with additional evidence to support its claims, and found other separate allegations, including trademark infringement and DMCA violations, sufficient. bottom. As agreed by both AimJunkies and Bungie, most of these claims (all except copyright, trademark, and “misrepresentation of origin” claims) were submitted to arbitration.
Following a hearing in December 2022, the arbitration process ended with a big win for Bungie.in the dominate (opens in new tab) (via torrent freak (opens in new tab)), Judge Ronald E. Cox ruled in Bungie’s favor on all the allegations made: AimJunkies violated the DMCA by creating cheat software and then selling it to the public, and violated the Terms of Service “Breached and committed to a contract with Bungie in violation of” “wrongful interference” by interfering in Bungie’s business, violated Washington’s consumer protection measures, and responded to Bungie’s original cease and desist order. committed “defamation” by lying on and destroying financial records and other related documents.
Despite AimJunkies’ aggressive and partially successful defense of Bungie’s initial lawsuit, it doesn’t appear to have fought much in the arbitration process. Owner and “managing member” David Shaefer testified at the hearing but was “not a credible witness,” the judge said. AimJunkies also “failed to present evidence to the contrary” to its DMCA violation claims and failed to respond to a briefing request regarding the amount of the associated prize. and may mitigate some damage.
If you add up that damage, you get:
- DMCA circumvention violations: $2,500 x 102 violations = $255,000
- DMCA anti-trafficking violations: $2,500 x 1,361 violations = $3,402,500
- Total Fines for DMCA Violation: $3,657,500
That’s not all. The judge also awarded Bungie his $598,641 in attorney fees, $101,800 in expert fees, and $38,281 in “other costs,” bringing him to $4,396,222 in total.
On the same day that the arbitration award was rendered, Bungie submitted the award to the court presiding over the ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit, requesting that the court use the award to impose: permanent suspension (opens in new tab) Applying AimJunkies and its favorable financial judgments; Assuming the court does so (and apparently has no standing to refuse), it effectively ends the case.
A day after winning the arbitration case against AimJunkies, Bungie also: $6.7 million (opens in new tab) Against another cheat maker called LaviCheats. His Bungie lawsuit against LaviCheats actually began in 2021, but LaviCheats has refused to acknowledge or respond to the complaint. LaviCheats removed the Destiny 2 cheats from his website after Bungie emailed the company and posted a message on the forums about legal action, but Bungie said LaviCheats operator Kunal Bansal have just moved their business to another site called Cobracheats.
We have reached out to Bungie and AimJunkies for comment on the arbitration award. I will update if I get a reply.