Over the past several years waves of copyright infringement lawsuits have targeted alleged cheaters and cheat makers.

The legal battle between the American video game developer Bungie and AimJunkies.com is one of the most litigated cases thus far.

Last summer, Bungie filed a complaint at a federal court in Seattle, accusing AimJunkies of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things. The same accusations were also made against Phoenix Digital Group, the alleged creators of the Destiny 2 cheating software.

Both parties in this case are experts at high-level virtual combat. The court, however, is an entirely different playing field where the stakes are typically higher. Nonetheless, both sides have committed to winning this battle.

Over the past year, there have been a series of allegations back and forth. Bungie is eager to shut down the cheating operation, which it believes is clearly illegal. AimJunkies disagrees and has fired back on several occasions.

Hacking Countersuit

Two weeks ago, the cheat seller denied all of Bungie’s claims in court and fired back with a countersuit . Among other things, it accused the game company of accessing the computer of defendant James May without authorization, which AimJunkies equates to hacking.

AimJunkies pointed out that Bungie’s license agreement (LSLA) didn’t explicitly allow for this type of access at the time, and that it was updated at a later stage to permit this for anti-cheating purposes.

Yesterday, Bungie filed a motion to dismiss these counterclaims at the federal court in Seattle, Washington. According to the game company, the hacking allegations are legally deficient and factually unsupported.

False and Unsupported

The allegations are based on a spreadsheet produced by Bungie, showing file paths on the local computer of AimJunkies’ James May. However, Bungie notes that it was May who initiated these connections, not the other way around.

“May’s allegations regarding Bungie’s supposed ‘access’ of his computer are simply false,” Bungie’s motion to dismiss reads.

“The purported evidence May relies on, which Counterclaimants attach to their counterclaims, does not show Bungie downloading files from May’s computer; it shows metadata of processes on May’s computer that he connected to the Destiny 2 process, such as May’s ‘Reverse Engineering Tool[s]’.”

Even if Bungie had initiated the connection, the claim would be legally insufficient since May does not allege any significant harm or injury, which is required to make the case for hacking, Bungie adds.

In addition, Bungie argues that it would be allowed to access May’s computer under its privacy policy, which is referenced in the LSLA. This broadly worded policy allows the company to access the computers of Destiny 2 players under certain circumstances.

“May’s counterclaims do not include any factual allegations demonstrating that the data purportedly collected by Bungie falls outside of these categories of data he agreed to allow Bungie to collect,” Bungie writes.

Bungie Rebuts DMCA Claims

Aside from the hacking claims, AimJunkies also accused Bungie of violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions. The game company had to do so in order to access the loader software, the cheat seller said.

Bungie asks the court to dismiss this claim as well. There is no evidence that the company “circumvented” anything and, on top of that, AimJunkies doesn’t show that the loader is a protected copyrighted work, as the DMCA requires.

“Phoenix Digital alleges that Bungie accessed its ‘proprietary loader software,’ but Phoenix Digital does not allege that this loader software constitutes a copyrighted work.”

Unsupported, False and Damaging

According to Bungie, it’s crystal clear that the counterclaims should be dismissed. The game maker argues that they are unsupported, false, and intended to damage its reputation.

To illustrate this, the motion mentions that AimJunkies’ David Schaefer sent an email ( 2:05 ) to lawyer and YouTuber Richard Hoeg , showing an interesting take on the legal term “on information and belief.”

This phrase of often used in legal paperwork to illustrate that statements are based on secondhand information that the declarant believes is true. According to Schaefer, it’s code for “it’s not true but were going to throw this out there and see if it sticks with the judge.”

The characterization referred to Bungie’s use of this term. However, it also suggests that AimJunkies would use it similarly.

“Counterclaimants have apparently taken this erroneous definition to heart and acted in accordance, alleging claims with no basis to ‘get away with’, allegations that they know are ‘not true’ to ‘see if it sticks’.

“To state the obvious, Schaefer is mistaken; alleging facts ‘on information and belief’ does not justify or excuse making knowingly false allegations or ‘get[ting] away’ with libel (or slander),” Bungie adds.

Based on the above, Bungie asks the court to dismiss the counterclaim with prejudice. That would mean that AimJunkies would not get the chance to amend and refile them in the future.

—

A copy of Bungie’s full motion to dismiss, obtained by TorrentFreak, is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Last year, Bungie filed a complaint at a federal court in Seattle, accusing AimJunkies.com of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things.

The same accusations were also made against Phoenix Digital Group, the alleged creators of the software.

AimJunkies denied the claims and argued that cheating isn’t against the law . In addition, it refuted the copyright infringement allegations; these lacked any substance and were ungrounded because some of the referenced copyrights were registered well after the cheats were first made available.

Court Dismissed Bungie’s Copyright Claims

In May, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly largely sided with AimJunkies . The original complaint didn’t provide sufficient evidence for a plausible claim that the ‘Destiny 2 Hacks’ infringed any copyrights, the judge concluded.

This was bad news for Bungie but the court did offer the company the option to file a new complaint to address these shortcomings, which it did soon after.

In an amended complaint the game developer added more copyright infringement details . Bungie also shared more information on the roles of several key people that are also allegedly involved. They include James May, who Bungie describes as a third-party cheat developer.

Cheaters Countersue Bungie

The AimJunkies defendants have now responded to the amended complaint. While they don’t deny that the AimJunkies site offered ‘Destiny 2′ cheats in the past, the defendants don’t believe any laws were violated.

Instead, James May and the three managing members of Phoenix Digital have turned the tables. Their countersuit against Bungie contains several hacking allegations and also claims that the game company violated the DMCA by circumventing the cheat’s technological protection measures.

The hacking allegations come from Mr. May, who played Destiny 2 and agreed to its Limited Software License Agreement (LSLA) in the fall of 2019.

Nowadays Bungie reserves the right to access players’ computers for anti-cheat purposes. However, the older version of the LSLA didn’t allow Bungie to do that. This older copy is the one presented by Bungie as evidence.

“The LSLA in effect at all relevant times does not provide Bungie, Inc. with authorization to surreptitiously access files on Mr. May’s personal computer and/or download information from those files without the direct knowledge and express authorization of Mr. May,” the countersuit clarifies.

Hacking Allegations

This didn’t stop Bungie from accessing Mr. May’s computer on several occasions between 2019 and 2021, as evidence gathered through discovery suggests. By doing so, the game company allegedly violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which can be seen as hacking.

The information gathered through the alleged “clandestine surveillance” of Mr. May’s computer was presumably used to gather intelligence on AimJunkies’ company Phoenix Digital and its employees.

“Upon information and belief, Bungie, Inc., after fraudulently accessing Mr. May’s personal computer, used the information obtained in order to conduct further surveillance on parties that include, but are not limited to, Phoenix Digital and its principals.”

The countersuit accuses Bungie of accessing Mr. May’s computer without permission and stealing his data. It claims that the game company willingly accessed confidential and private files with the intent to defraud.

In addition, Mr. May also argues that Bungie violated the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision as it bypassed, removed, or deactivated the computer’s security measures.

DMCA Violations and Reverse Engineering

Phoenix Digital also adds several counterclaims to the mix. The company alleges that Bungie breached its terms of service. In 2020, someone using the name “Martin Zeniu” obtained a license to the Destiny 2 cheat software, agreeing to these terms.

According to AimJunkies, “Zeniu” is an alias used by an employee or agent of Bungie. The purchased software was allegedly decompiled and reverse engineered, which is a breach of contract since it violates the Terms of Service.

“Upon information and belief, Bungie, Inc., decompiled, reverse engineered and otherwise inspected the internal workings of the ‘cheat software’ product obtained from the aimjunkies website by “Martin Zeniu” on or about January 3, 2020, in breach of the Phoenix Digital Terms of Service to which Bungie, Inc., had agreed,” the countersuit reads.

Phoenix’ also accuses Bungie of violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions. According to the countersuit, the game company had to do that in order to access the loader software.

“Bungie, without the authorization of Phoenix Digital, improperly gained access to loader software used by Phoenix Digital to distribute the ‘cheat software’ at issue here to its customers. In doing so, Bungie defeated and compromised technological measures implemented by Phoenix Digital to preclude access to its loader software.”

As compensation, Mr. May and Phoenix Digital demand damages. In addition, the countersuit aims to put an end to all unauthorized computer access and DMCA violations.

By going on the offensive, AimJunkies has essentially turned the tables on Bungie. Interestingly, the cheat seller uses many of Bungie’s own allegations against the company. Whether these claims will hold up in court has yet to be seen.

—

A copy of the filing with the answers and counterclaims from the Aimjunkies’ defendants is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Over the past several years a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits has targeted alleged cheaters and cheat makers.

The legal battle between the American video game developer Bungie and AimJunkies.com is one of the most litigated cases thus far.

Last summer, Bungie filed a complaint at a federal court in Seattle, accusing AimJunkies of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things. The same accusations were also made against Phoenix Digital Group, the alleged creators of the Destiny 2 cheating software.

The case initially seemed set for a quick settlement but the parties failed to reach an agreement. Instead, Bungie for a default judgment, while AimJunkies went on the defensive, asking the court to dismiss several claims.

AimJunkies argued that cheating isn’t against the law . In addition, it refuted the copyright infringement allegations; these lacked any substance and were ungrounded because some of the referenced copyrights were registered well after the cheats were first made available, AimJunkies argued.

Dismissal and Do-Over

In May, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly largely sided with AimJunkies . The original complaint didn’t provide sufficient evidence for a plausible claim that the ‘Destiny 2 Hacks’ infringed any copyrights.

This was bad news for Bungie but the court did offer the company the option to file a new complaint to address these shortcomings, which it did soon after .

In an amended complaint the game developer added more copyright infringement details. Among other things, the defendants allegedly copied the Destiny 2 software code that corresponds to the data structures for player positioning, to create the cheat’s ESP feature.

These allegations were contested by AimJunkies’ employees David Schaefer, Jeffrey Conway, and Jordan Green, who asked the court to dismiss the claims against them for lack of jurisdiction.

In addition, defendant James May, who was allegedly involved in the development of the cheats, noted that Bungie’s arguments did not amount to a plausible copyright infringement claim as they remained vague.

Court Denies Dismissal Request

This week, District Court Judge Thomas Zilly ruled on the motion to dismiss. This time, his order clearly favors the game developer.

Bungie argued that the court has jurisdiction because the defendants signed its licence agreement, which includes a forum selection clause. Defendants Schaefer, Conway, and Green contested this but their arguments failed to persuade the court.

“In support of their motion, Conway, Schaefer, and Green have submitted declarations alleging that they never reviewed the LSLA or consented to be bound by its terms,” Judge Zilly writes.

“Conway, however, is the only defendant who claims that he has never played any computer game offered by Bungie, including Destiny 2. Green and Schaefer do not rebut Bungie’s allegation that they downloaded, installed, and/or played Destiny 2.’

In addition, the court says it has jurisdiction over Conway, who is believed to be involved in selling the cheats, including to Washington residents.

Copyright Claim Survices

Bungie’s original complaint didn’t provide sufficient evidence to plausibly claim that the ‘Destiny 2 Hacks’ infringed any copyrights. The amended version corrected these shortcomings.

For a plausible claim of direct infringement, a rightsholder has to show that it owns the infringed material and that the defendants violated at least one of its rights. That is indeed the case here, Judge Zilly notes.

Pointing out that the cheats allegedly used Destiny 2’s data structures and reverse-engineered Bungie code, that’s sufficient to let the case continue.

“Bungie has plausibly alleged that May infringed the Destiny 2 copyrights by copying the videogame’s software code,” the Judge adds, meaning that Defendant May’s motion to dismiss the direct copyright infringement claim is denied as well.

In addition, a request to dismiss the copyright infringement claims against the other defendants is not considered. That issue was first raised in a reply brief instead of the motion to dismiss, which is too late.

The recent order is good news for Bungie and keeps the lawsuit very much alive. Based on all the activity thus far, we can expect both sides to continue fighting tooth and nail.

—

A copy of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly’s order on the motion to dismiss is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Last summer, Bungie filed a complaint at a federal court in Seattle, accusing AimJunkies.com of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things.

The same accusations were also made against Phoenix Digital Group, the alleged creators of the Destiny 2 cheating software.

AimJunkies argued that cheating isn’t against the law . In addition, it refuted the copyright infringement allegations; these lacked any substance and were ungrounded because some of the referenced copyrights were registered well after the cheats were first made available.

Dismissal and Do-Over

In May, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly largely sided with AimJunkies . The original complaint didn’t provide sufficient evidence for a plausible claim that the ‘Destiny 2 Hacks’ infringed any copyrights.

This was a major setback for Bungie but the court did offer the developer the option to file a new complaint to address these shortcomings, which it did soon after .

As time progresses, it’s becoming clear that both sides intend to fight this case tooth and nail. Through discovery, they hope to obtain additional information to support their respective positions. Bungie, for example, subpoenaed PayPal requesting copies of account information and other documents related to the cheat seller.

AimJunkies, meanwhile, is also keeping itself busy. The defendant has prepared several subpoenas, targeting Google, PayPal, and Valve, through which it hopes to gather evidence against Bungie.

Valve Subpoena

Through Valve, AimJunkies want to obtain information from the Steam platform. This includes the monthly number of Destiny 2 players going back to 2017, as well as monthly sales including merchandise.

The subpoena doesn’t explain what AimJunkies plan to do with this information but through a press release , the company behind the cheat seller informs TorrentFreak that it could help to disprove Bungie’s argument that cheaters hurt the company.

“Bungie claims that we caused grievous harm to their game when in fact some of their most popular months of player counts and sales were during the time Aimjunkies offered their software products. We believe and intend to gather actionable proof of that and disprove another one of their wild assertions,” Phoenix Digital notes

In addition to the sales figures, AimJunkies also request all information held by Steam and Valve on Phoenix Digital and several key people involved with the cheat developer.

Decompiling and Overlays

The PayPal and Google subpoenas are harder to interpret at first glance. They request information on a person named “Martin Zeniu,” who has no web presence. The Google subpoena also targets someone with a “jesuslover” username.

The same two targets, one of whom appears to be connected to Bungie, also show up in the Valve subpoena. While AimJunkies is yet to reveal its concrete intentions, there’s a suggestion that someone may have violated the terms of service of their cheat software.

“Phoenix Digital Group will prosecute individuals or companies who violated our Copyrights and Terms Of Service to the fullest extent of the law and this is the first step down that path,” the company notes.

“We believe on information and belief an un-named employee/contractor for a un-named company purchased Aimjunkies software and turned it over to their employer to decompile and analyze. We intend to subpoena documents with actionable information to answer these questions.”

The cheat maker further suggests that the in-game “overlays” its software offered are not illegal. Other services, including Steam, offer the same. To show this, the Valve subpoena requests overlay source code used by the Steam platform, including that relating to the file “GameOverlayRenderer.dll”.

The above shows that AimJunkies isn’t intimidated by the legal battle. The company believes that Bungie has a rather weak case and seems confident that it will emerge victorious.

—

The subpoena documents referenced in this article are available here ( 1 , 2 , 3 )

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Over the past several years, a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits has targeted alleged cheaters and cheat makers.

Several game companies including Take-Two Interactive and Epic Games have taken cheaters to court in the US. More recently, American video game developer Bungie has been rather active as well.

Bungie is known for the Halo and Destiny series, which have millions of fans around the world. The popularity of these games also attracts cheaters and cheat sellers, including “Elite Boss Tech” and “AimJunkies.com.”

How these sellers have responded to the legal pressure varies considerably. Earlier this year Elite Boss Tech accepted a loss by signing a consent judgment, agreeing to pay $13.5 million in copyright damages. AimJunkies, on the other hand, is doing everything in its power to fight back.

Bungie vs. Aimjunkies

Bungie sued Aimjunkies last summer, accusing it of copyright and trademark infringement among other things. The cheat seller returned fire with a strong defense. It argued that cheating isn’t against the law and said that the cheat software itself isn’t copyright infringing.

The Seattle federal court largely agreed with AimJunkies and dismissed Bungie’s copyright infringement claims. However, Bungie was given the opportunity to file an amended complaint containing more details on the alleged wrongdoings, which it did shortly after.

As the case continues, both parties are also conducting discovery, hoping to obtain additional information to support their respective positions. As part of this process, Bungie subpoenaed PayPal requesting copies of account information and other documents related to the cheat seller.

The subpoena lists several names and email addresses that PayPal should search for, as well as a phone number. In addition, Bungie would like to have all documents related to accounts or transactions from the merchant NETNOOBS, through which the cheats were apparently sold.

‘Bungie Targets Family Members’

This information may prove useful to Bungie’s claims but according to AimJunkies and the other defendants, it goes way too far.

The cheat seller submitted a motion for a protective order in court this week, hoping to limit the subpoena. According to the defendants, the requested information includes sensitive private details, as well as records related to the wives and children of the individual defendants.

Exposing this information has nothing to do with the cheating activity that’s at the center of the lawsuit, the defense notes.

“This is particularly true in the case of family members who were not involved in any of Defendants’ activities but are, nonetheless identified in the subpoena and whose personal information would be released.”

Exposing Cheat Buyers?

AimJunkies further believe that the subpoena may be intended to get more details on its customers; the actual cheaters. This information is not relevant to the lawsuit either and could be used to approach cheaters.

“[I]t appears the goal of the subpoena is to identify Defendants’ customers as well. The identities of these customers has nothing to do with any legitimate issue in this case,” the defense writes.

“Seeking the names and identities of Defendants’ customers is not only highly irrelevant, it appears intended to enable Bungie to harass Defendants’ customers by dragging them into this matter with ostensible ‘third party’ discovery.”

Finally, AimJunkies stresses that its motion to dismiss the case against several of the defendants is still pending. If granted, some of the people listed in the subpoena will no longer be involved in the case. As such, it might be best to at least delay any disclosures until that motion is decided on.

The defendants don’t want to prevent all information from being shared by PayPal. Instead, they ask the court to limit the subpoena to reveal the number of “Destiny 2” cheats that were sold and what revenues, if any, were generated.

The court has not yet responded to Aimjunkies’ request but it’s clear that both parties intend to fight this case tooth and nail.

—–

A copy of Bungie’s subpoena to PayPal is available here (pdf) and Aimjunkies’ objections can be found here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Last summer, Bungie filed a complaint at a federal court in Seattle, accusing AimJunkies.com of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things.

The same accusations were also made against Phoenix Digital Group, the alleged creators of the software.

The parties initially entered settlement negotiations but the process was derailed when the video game maker moved for a default judgment. In response, AimJunkies went on the defensive; and not without success.

AimJunkies argued that cheating isn’t against the law . In addition, it refuted the copyright infringement allegations; these lacked any substance and were ungrounded because some of the referenced copyrights were registered well after the cheats were first made available.

Court Dismissed Bungie’s Copyright Claims

A few weeks ago, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly largely sided with AimJunkies . The original complaint didn’t provide sufficient evidence for a plausible claim that the ‘Destiny 2 Hacks’ infringed any copyrights.

This was a severe blow for Bungie but the court did offer the game maker the option to file a new complaint to address these shortcomings.

Bungie seized the opportunity to ‘respawn’ and filed an amended complaint at the U.S. District Court in Seattle late last week. This new complaint adds more details to the copyright infringement claims as well as the role of several key persons that are allegedly involved.

The game maker starts out by stressing the damage cheaters cause to the game experience, which eventually ruins the fun for legitimate players.

“Cheaters ruin the experience of playing Destiny 2. Not only do cheaters impair the enjoyment of gameplay by non-cheaters with whom they interact in-game; cheaters illegitimately obtain and thereby devalue the in-game rewards that non-cheaters obtain legitimately.

“It is vital to Bungie’s and Destiny 2’s success that Bungie keep cheaters out of the game,” the complaint reads.

Reverse Engineered Code & Infringing Data Structures

In addition to listing AimJunkies.com as a defendant, Bungie also targets the associated company Phoenix Digital and its three managing members; David Schaefer, Jeffrey Conway, and Jordan Green. The final defendant is James May, who was allegedly involved in the development of the cheats.

These men were all allegedly involved in the development of the cheat software. In that process, they are believed to have reverse-engineered the copyrighted game content.

“In order to create that cheat software, and on information and belief, Mr. Schaefer, Mr. Conway, Mr. Green and Mr. May reverse engineered and copied the software code for Destiny 2,” Bungie writes.

Among other things, Bungie claims that the cheat relies on copyrighted data structures that are specifically used for Destiny 2’s rendering. This was supposedly used for the ESP feature, for example, which allows cheaters to see other players through solid walls.

“On information and belief, in order to provide this ESP feature, Defendants copied the Destiny 2 software code that corresponds to the data structures for player positioning [in] Destiny 2, and reverse engineered the software code for Destiny 2’s rendering functions.”

The new complaint also claims that the defendants effectively created a derivative of some of the copyrighted Destiny 2 code and distributed that without permission to people who bought the cheats.

The new copyright claims are indeed more detailed than those alleged in the original complaint. Whether this will be enough for the court to allow the case to continue remains to be seen.

“Veiled Threat”

AimJunkies no longer offers the cheat on its website but Bungie wants to continue the case nonetheless. The game maker is worried that the cheats may be relisted at a later date, sold to a third party, or shared online for free.

The last option was previously mentioned by AimJunkies director Mr. Schaefer, who allegedly issued a veiled threat to Bungie’s CEO over email.

“In the old days sites would put the source code on public forums for every 14yo to get and make a hack for your game. Most of the time when they do it [sic] they make it a free public cheat accessible to everyone,” the email read.

“Imagine players having access to cheats for free? I don’t think anyone wants to go back to those days. The net would be you would have more cheaters in your game then [sic] before the crusader came in. Is that what you’re looking for in your game?”

Ukrainian Deal

Selling AimJunkies to a third party is a realistic option too. In the amended complaint Bungie references a TorrentFreak article where AimJunkies states that it was in the process on selling the company to a group of Ukrainian investors.

This sale is still on, AimJunkies informed us over the weekend. Today, the company issued a press release together with the Ukrainian company Blome Entertainment (BME), confirming their intentions.

According to the press release , BME completed and signed definitive agreements with AimJunkies to acquire “Aimjunkies.com.” The cheat seller will, however, continue to operate independently.

“In BME, we have found a purchasing partner that fully supports us and wants to accelerate our vision of distributing meaningful entertainment experiences that span generations, all while valuing the creative independence that is the heartbeat of Aimjunkies,” Phoenix Digital CEO David Schaefer comments on the announcement

“Aimjunkies has distributed and continues to distribute some of the world’s most beloved videogame cheats and, by aligning its values with people’s desire to share gameplay cheat experiences in Eastern Europe, they bring together millions of people around the world,” BME CEO Maxim Arshinov adds.

What the forthcoming acquisition means for the legal battle is not immediately clear, but we will keep a close eye on developments.

—

A copy of the amended complaint filed by Bungie against Phoenix Digital Group and several of its employees at the Seattle federal court is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.