Bungie files lawsuit over "fraudulent" DMCA takedowns of Destiny videos

rockpapershotgun.com:

Earlier this month, several Destiny 2 videos created by fans were removed from YouTube due to the filing of DMCA takedown notices. Bungie tweeted that they weren't responsible, but that they were "aware of a series of copyright takedowns" and were actively investigating. Some of their own videos had also been taken offline.

Now Bungie have filed a lawsuit in Washington against ten John Does, hoping to make an example of those who filed the "fraudulent" takedown notices.

The lawsuit, which can be read in full via TorrentFreak, argues that the takedown notices "caused Bungie significant reputational and economic damage." It also explicitly criticises YouTube's response to the DMCA notices.

The DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is designed to limit the liability of content hosts like YouTube as long as they respond promptly to takedown notices alerting them to copyright infringement. YouTube consequently responds to any DMCA takedown notice by immediately taking the content offline pending an appeal by the uploader. As Bungie's lawsuit points out, "any person, anywhere in the world, can issue takedown notices on behalf of any rights holder, anywhere." This system is ripe for abuse - as Google themselves have argued in the past.

In this instance, the lawsuit alleges that several fake Gmail addresses were used to file takedown notices against videos featuring game footage from Destiny or its sequel. These email addresses were designed to look similar to those used by CSC, a third-party company used by Bungie to protect its copyright and send legitimate takedown notices.

While Bungie don't know who filed the takedown notices, one of the accounts used to file the DMCAs seemingly sent a Destiny video creator an