Bungie wins landmark lawsuit against Destiny 2 cheat maker AimJunkies

They wanted to make money by selling them cheating tools Destiny 2 players. They may have ended up setting a legal precedent in the United States.

After a trial in federal court in Seattle last week, a jury found cheat selling company AimJunkies, along with its parent company Phoenix Digital and four of its employees and contractors, liable for copyright infringement and awarded damages to each of them. The jury split $63,210 in damages, including $20,000 to Phoenix Digital itself and just under $11,000 to each of the four individuals. This is slightly less than the $65,000 in revenue that the defendants claimed to have generated from 1,400 copies of their book. Destiny 2 to cheat.

It seems that Bungie’s case is over Far beyond any other cheating suit in the game This has been done in the American court system. Because cheating in an online game is not illegal in and of itself, game companies typically rely on the anti-cheating aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. So did the makers of Grand Theft Auto V, Observation and control, Rainbow sixAnd fortnite They have followed their opponents who are cheating. Bungie, by accepting its post-settlement claim and then winning the copyright suit from a jury, may have provided game makers with a case to point to in future actions, and perhaps more incentives.

AimJunkies can still appeal the jury’s verdict; Phoenix Digital founder David Schafer told Steven Totilo about this Plans to fight the referee. A separate arbitration award focusing on DMCA violations, which awarded Bungie $4.4 million in damages and fees from AimJunkies, remains on appeal, with AimJunkies claim The arbitrator “blatantly ignored” the arbitration terms.

Destiny 2.

Allegations of hacking and possible loss of Bitcoin

like Reported by TorrentFreak And Law360 In the courtroom, AimJunkies’ attorney stuck to his argument that it was inaccessible Destiny 2The source code for, they cannot have committed copyright infringement. Instead, the cheating company manipulated the object code, or compiled output, to make its tools work.

Developer James May also reinforced his claims that it was not an essential part of the cheat code and that Bungie had “hacked” its PC. The counter-piracy lawsuit has survived an earlier dismissal, with AimJunkies and May arguing that Bungie’s cheat monitoring software had reverse-engineered its code and violated the DMCA and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The judge at the time criticized the CFAA’s claims for lack of evidence but allowed them to be amended and restated. The jury did not find May in his counterclaim against Bunge.

In bungee complaint (PDF), and in opening arguments (e.g Notice the polygon From Law360’s embargoed reports), there are confusing hints as to why the actual damages were relatively small. Bungie claimed to have records showing that in May it paid Phoenix Digital more than $700,000 to work on cheats, but sales records from Phoenix show only $43,000 in sales. Bungie’s complaint asks the jury to consider “theft of evidence,” including deleted cryptocurrency logs, forum messages, and sales information. The majority of hearings and motions related to these matters remain under seal In the case list.

Sometime in mid-2022, with the push of Bungie’s suit, AimJunkies Published a press release On its website it was purchased by the Ukrainian company “Blome Entertainment”. Phoenix Digital founder David Schafer told Bungie’s lawyers that he issued this press release to antagonize Bungie’s lawyers, according to opening statements. Schaefer was at one point Command To pay a $5,000 fine to Bungie for “harassment and unprofessional conduct” upon filing.

The three-year journey to power

Bungie’s victory in the case was far from certain. Bungie first filed a lawsuit against AimJunkies in June 2021. AimJunkies removed its cheats and entered into settlement talks with Bungie, but Bungie moved for summary judgment in November 2022 after AimJunkies did not respond.

The judge overseeing the case ruled just over two years ago that Bungie “did not plead sufficient facts” that AimJunkies copied its work, though he gave Bungie time to amend and resubmit it. Western District of Washington Judge Thomas Zellie also noted this Destiny 2The licensing agreement prevented Bungie from filing a lawsuit against AimJunkies over fraud, contract, and enrichment issues. In a rare act of “click to agree” against the issuing company, Zilly sent the matter to arbitration, where Bungie has so far won.

In Zilly’s November 2022 ruling against aspects of May’s counterclaims, Zilly noted that May’s evidence of Bungie accessing his computer and hacking was not proven and likely fell short of the $5,000 damages needed for a CFAA claim.

Phoenix Digital’s attorney, Phil Mann, told Polygon that the evidence does not support the ruling. Mann added that the prize money “will reveal, once and for all, that all those fake multi-million dollar prizes that Bungie previously took out against a couple of kids in the garage who couldn’t fight are just for show and don’t reflect reality.”

Bungie’s attorney, James Parker, told multiple outlets that the company is “committed to our players and will continue to protect them from cheating, including taking this and future cases to trial.”