Bungie Takes Cheat Sellers To Court, Win Vs AimJunkies, Lawsuit Vs Lavicheats
Bungie has taken the fight against Destiny 2 cheaters and cheat sellers, all the way to the court. The company just beat AimJunkies in arbitration, while they are starting a new lawsuit vs LaviCheats.
AimJunkies is a commercial enterprise ran by a company called Phoenix Digital. They have sold themselves to the public as a legitimate business, selling cheats for players of PC games, not just Destiny 2.
As reported by Torrentfreak, the timeline for Bungie’s case vs AimJunkies began in 2021. Bungie then claimed that AimJunkies committed copyright and trademark infringement.
On May 2022, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly dismissed Bungie’s claims. Judge Zilly pointed out that Bungie’s complaint did not have sufficient evidence to prove that any IP infringement happened.
However, Bungie was allowed to amend this complaint, and this case is still ongoing, with the trial set for later in 2023.
Bungie also made other complaints outside of IP infringement. The key complaint here is that AimJunkies’ cheats violated the anti-circumvention provision of Destiny 2’s DMCA. Furthermore, this DMCA violating cheats were sold illegally.
As this part of the case went through arbitration, it won’t be part of the case coming later. This time, artbitration judge Ronald Cox sided with Bungie, who were awarded $ 4.3 million in damages and fees. Judge Cox found that AimJunkies’ developer James May himself broke the DMCA by reverse engineering Destiny 2’s tools for the purpose of making cheats. May also came up with more ways to bypass and circumvent Bungie after he was banned several times over.
Because the cheats broke DMCA, selling the cheats was also against the law. While May was primarily held liable for the first charge, the courts
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