Bungie sues Bungie impersonator for millions over Destiny 2 DMCAs

pcgamesn.com:

Bungie has filed a lawsuit against one Nicholas Minor, claiming that, after receiving a copyright takedown notice on their Destiny 2 YouTube videos, they retaliated by creating a series of fake Bungie email addresses, and sending DMCA notices to other YouTubers, pretending to be from the company.

Minor was the owner of a YouTube account named Lord Nazo. According to Bungie’s filing, in December 2021, CSC Global – which acts as the developer’s brand protector – sent a takedown notice to Minor after they had uploaded to YouTube the soundtrack for the Destiny expansion The Taken King. Minor allegedly refused to remove their videos, and left them online until they were removed by YouTube in January. Minor then registered a new Gmail address, designed to mimic the email addresses of CSC Global employees.

In February, another Destiny soundtrack was uploaded to the Lord Nazo channel, this time from the Destiny 2 Witch Queen expansion, and again, Bungie issued an official takedown notice. Minor allegedly then registered a second CSC-style email address, and – according to Bungie’s filing (via The Game Post) – “began to send out a wave of fraudulent takedown notices.”

Bungie learned of Minor’s actions when it was sent data by Google, outlining the recent takedown notices that had been issued by the supposed “CSC”, as well as the IP address from which they had originated. The former Halo developer claims that Minor orchestrated the campaign in order to damage its reputation among players and the Destiny community, as retaliation for the copyright takedowns Minor had received – the studio claims that, as well as sending out fake takedown notices, Minor used his Lord Nazo online accounts to spread “disinformation” about Bungie, and