In 2021, Bungie initiated a lawsuit against Veterancheats. After the company failed to reply to the complaint, Bungie sought a default judgment against the company for copyright infringement circumvention of technological protection measures in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Bungie alleged that the company sold software that gave advantages to unskilled players, allowing them to gain an unfair advantage in its multiplayer game.
After a federal court judge in Washington state confirmed the court had jurisdiction over the Romanian business in the case, the judge awarded Bungie’s request for more than $12 million in damages and fees. The judge noted that because the violations were wilful, Bungie was entitled to up to $2,500 per download of the programs.
“Bungie has asked for only $2,000 for each of the 5,848 downloads of the VeteranCheats Hack and the Court finds that this amount is appropriate. The Court will therefore enter a default judgment in the amount of $11,696,000 for Claudiu-Florentin’s violations of the DMCA,” the judge wrote. The judge also granted additional damages based on Copyright Act violations and awarded attorney’s fees in the matter.
Veterancheats also received a permanent injunction barring the company from selling cheats for any Bungie games. It cannot use domain name services or services such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Discord or Reddit to promote or sell cheats, as reported by TorrentFreak.
Although it’s a win for Bungie, it’s unclear whether or not the game development company will be able to collect the fee. Still, Bungie’s aggressive approach to handling cheat makers is a powerful signal that it won’t pull out any stops when it comes to combating cheating in its games. And, with wins like this, other game developers are likely to follow suit in their efforts to keep their games fair to all players.
After Bungie sued cheat maker Elite Boss Tech, the company accepted a consent judgment agreeing to pay $13.5 million in copyright damages. However, a lawsuit against AimJunkies is ongoing, as the company asserts it did not violate the law with its programs.
There are just a few weeks left to explore what’s new in Destiny 2 Lightfall before the launch of Destiny 2 Season 21, so be sure to check out our list of all the Destiny 2 Lightfall Exotics so you don’t miss anything before the season’s end.
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Source: https://www.pcgamesn.com/destiny-2/cheat-maker-12-million-bungie
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