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Entre MOBA, battle royale et shooter, ce titre inédit et frénétique promet de passionner les aficionados de jeux en ligne.

Voici le nouveau jeu en ligne des anciens de Riot, Blizzard et Bungie

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SEGA, Bungie, Niantic,… Microsoft veut racheter le monde entier

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

Early Win for AimJunkies

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly handed an early and partial win to 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 a setback for Bungie, but the court allowed the game developer to amend its complaint, which it promptly did. As a result, the copyright infringement dispute is currently ongoing and progressing through the legal process.

During 2022, Judge Zilly referred several of the non-copyright-related complaints to arbitration, including allegations that AimJunkies’ cheats violated the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision and were illegally sold to third parties.

Arbitration Judge Sides with Bungie

The arbitration process was conducted behind the scenes and resulted in a resounding win for the game developer; Bungie was awarded a total of nearly $4.4 million in damages and fees .

The bulk of the award was DMCA-related damages. According to arbitration Judge Ronald Cox, the evidence makes it clear that AimJunkies and third-party developer James May bypassed Bungie’s technical protection measures in violation of the DMCA.

In addition to breaching the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, the defendants were also found liable for trafficking in circumvention devices. Or, put differently, selling and shipping the cheats.

The DMCA circumvention and trafficking violations total nearly $3.6 million in damages with the remainder of the $4.4 million consisting of fees and costs.

Court Denies Objections, Confirms Damages Award

Shortly after the arbitration result, Bungie asked the federal court to have it confirmed. This was met with protests from the cheat seller, which asked the court to vacate the damages award.

According to AimJunkies, the arbitrator denied them a fair hearing by sustaining an objection. This prevented AimJunkies to use a prior deposition of Bungie’s witness for impeachment purposes. On top of that, they argue that the arbitrator was evidentially partial toward Bungie.

After reviewing the relevant submissions, District Court Judge Thomas Zilly denied AimJunkies’ objections and confirmed the arbitration order.

According to the court, AimJunkies could have tried other ways to bring up the impeachment. In addition, there’s no evidence that the arbitrator was evidentially partial to Bungie.

The final award totals $4,396,222 and consists of $3,657,500 in damages, $598,641 in attorneys’ fees, $101,800 in expert witness fees, and $38,281 in other expenses.

Legal Battle Continues

The court’s approval of the judgment is good news for Bungie. In addition to the financial aspect, it also comes with a permanent injunction that prevents the defendants from creating and selling similar hacks and cheats in the future.

That said, the legal battle is far from over. Bungie’s copyright and trademark infringement claims remain pending and both sides are expending significant legal resources to make their case.

In addition to Bungie’s claims, the countersuit in which third-party cheat developer James May accuses Bungie of ‘hacking,’ theft, and DMCA violations , has yet to be decided as well.

These remaining issues are expected to be resolved at a multi-day trial, which is scheduled to take place later this year.

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A copy of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly’s order confirming the arbitration judgment is available here (pdf)

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

Bungie’s pursuit of people behind Destiny 2 cheat operation Elite Boss Tech, is pushing forward and showing no sign of stopping.

The lawsuit began in August 2021 with the aim of shutting down the ‘Wallhax’ cheat. By June 2022, Bungie had a $13.5 million copyright infringement damages award in hand, and suddenly cooperative defendants helping to unveil others involved in the circumvention of Bungie’s technological protection measures.

Bungie Asks Court For More Time

Earlier this month, Bungie was awarded over $16 million against a single defendant, with claims spanning copyright law, breach of contract, and civil RICO violations.

Just two days later, the court instructed Bungie to voluntarily dismiss all remaining unnamed defendants and any named defendants yet to be served. Bungie followed up with a request for the court to partially reconsider, arguing that progress is still being made in its quest to track the defendants down.

“Bungie continues its efforts to identify the unnamed Doe Defendants, and is actively seeking further information that may allow that identification, but does not have that information yet,” Bungie informed the court.

“Bungie served Eddie Tran, who is the only Named Defendant believed to reside in the United States, on February 28th, 2023,” the videogame company continued, noting that the remainder are believed to reside overseas.

On February 23, Bungie emailed each of the presumed foreign defendants with a request to waive service, with a deadline of April 13 to respond. Hoping that the defendants would eventually respond and in an effort to reduce costs, Bungie said that it didn’t immediately press ahead with service proceedings under the Hague Convention. However, it does have someone working on the case with a track record of success.

Tracking Down Anonymous Cheaters

Kathryn Tewson, a paralegal and investigator at KUSK Law in New York, rose to fame in January after a ferocious teardown of DoNotPay, a company that claims to have developed “The World’s First Robot Lawyer.” DoNotPay says its AI product provides affordable legal representation but according to Tewson, the supposed AI amounts to a document wizard dressed up in Theranos-style marketing.

Being hounded by “ the world’s most tenacious paralegal ” is also reality for defendants in Bungie cheat lawsuits.

In a declaration filed last week in support of Bungie’s request for more time in the Elite Boss Tech lawsuit, Tewson revealed she was the person who identified Eddie Tran and six other defendants across Europe and China.

“All of the International Defendants operate incognito under assumed names and take other steps to hide their identities and avoid detection. Because of the International Defendants’ intentional efforts to evade identification and detection, it is time-consuming and labor intensive to locate physical addresses for them sufficient to effectuate service,” Tewson informed the court.

Just One Person Answered Bungie’s Emails

One of Bungie’s emailed requests to waive service was sent by Tewson to a defendant named as Marta Magalhaes, aka MindBender, aka Bluegirl. The email contained a copy of the complaint, a reminder about the duty to avoid unnecessary expenses, and a warning that if the waiver wasn’t signed and returned, Bungie would arrange to have the summons and complaint physically served, with Magalhaes potentially picking up the bill.

A response from ‘Bruno Silva’ dated February 24 via a Gmail account said: “sorry i dont know what destiny 2 is, i dont play online games.”

Tewson responded within minutes. “Our apologies. There may have been a mistake. Can you confirm your address?”

As seen in the image below, ‘Bruno Silva’ supplied an address in Bucharest, Romania.

Widely considered the most famous road in the entire country, Calea Victoriei is a major Romanian tourist attraction. The address provided by ‘Bruno Silva’ – Calea Victoriei 118 – is the home of the Romanian Copyright Office ( ORDA )

Defendant May Be Trying to Mislead

Tewson believes that the address provided by ‘Bruno Silva’ is probably false.

“Based on information received in settlement and my own investigation, I believe the information provided by defendant Magalhaes / ‘Bruno Silva’ is likely false and that the individual who responded to the email is the proper defendant in this case, and probably resides in Portugal,” Tewson informed the court.

“Bungie has issued a subpoena to Google in an effort to obtain information on Defendant Magalhaes (or Silva) sufficient to effectuate service under Fed. R. Civ. P. 4. The return date for that subpoena is June 15th.”

While it does seem highly unlikely that the defendant lives at the Romanian Copyright Office, email time stamps as they appear in correspondence suggest a time difference more closely aligned with Romania than Portugal, although other details tend to suggest the latter.

Gmail and Privacy

Exactly what information has been requested from Google isn’t unclear but in broad terms, Gmail and Google accounts in general can be a privacy nightmare for the unaware, even in the event Google refuses to hand anything over.

Simply knowing someone’s Gmail address can be the starting point for discovering their activities on other Google platforms that have nothing to do with email. In cases where users have previously contributed to certain Google platforms while unaware of the risks, those platforms can provide worrying amounts of location data.

In this case, none of that data relates to the Romanian Copyright Office.

Kathryn Tewson’s declaration & related documents available here ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , pdf)

Image Credit: Pixabay/ succo

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

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After filing a series of lawsuits against cheat developers, cheat sellers, resellers, and even gamers who use cheats, there’s little doubt that Bungie views cheating as a threat to its business.

After a Washington court awarded Bungie $6.7 million in damages against LaviCheats on Monday, the company scooped a damages award of $16.2m in the same court (but in a different case) on Tuesday.

For the sole defendant in yet another Bungie lawsuit, filed at exactly the same court in 2022, these headlines should make for uncomfortable reading. While the case doesn’t feature a cheat developer or seller, Bungie has shown few signs that it’s prepared to back down from its mission to stamp out game tampering.

Twitch Streamer Feels The Heat

In its July 2022 complaint , Bungie targeted a Twitch user who reportedly live streamed himself cheating in Destiny 2 while evading multiple bans. When it became apparent that the user was just 17-years-old, his name was removed from the docket and replaced by the initials L.L. Bungie continued, business as usual.

According to the complaint, L.L. and Bungie have a history. While using various pieces of cheat software, L.L. streamed his games on Twitch and using its own tools, Bungie detected his activity and banned him. L.L. responded by opening new accounts, which Bungie would eventually shut down. When L.L. posted a series of tweets in May 2022, in which ‘arson’ and ‘death’ were mentioned along with a named member of staff, Bungie was prompted into action.

In common with other lawsuits against cheaters, Bungie says that L.L.’s use of cheat software modified Destiny 2 and led to the creation of an unauthorized derivative work. That entitles the company to either $150,000 in statutory damages or an amount to be determined at trial. Bungie says that each time L.L. played the game, he also bypassed Bungie’s security measures. Citing violations of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, Bungie demands $2,500 for each time that happened.

More fundamentally, each time L.L. was banned and then signed up for a new account, he agreed to Bungie’s Limited Software License Agreement with no intent to comply with it; fraud according to Bungie. That’s on top of allegations that L.L. resold Bungie-issued digital emblems on a third-party platform with authorization to do so.

L.L. Came Out Swinging

Covered in detail last September, L.L.’s response to Bungie’s complaint can be summarized in a few key points.

Anything that L.L. may have said about Bungie was simply the teenager making fun of the company’s “apparently ineffective” efforts to combat cheating in Destiny 2. Since “Congress has not, at present, chosen to make [cheating] unlawful,” the defense continued, none of the alleged acts in the complaint violated any of Bungie’s rights.

Regarding violations of the LSLA, the court was informed that as a minor, L.L. has the right to disaffirm any contract within a reasonable time of becoming an adult. As it happened, he had already declared all contracts with Bungie null and void.

In its response to L.L.’s motion to dismiss, Bungie said the court could go right ahead and dismiss all of its claims related to the LSLA. While the LSLA prohibits things like cheating, it also acts as permission since it licenses certain actions, including playing the game.

With no license in place, Bungie said that every download and every play of Destiny 2 amounted to copyright infringement, potentially placing L.L. in a less advantageous position than he had enjoyed before.

In a subsequent filing, which appeared to reference the claim that Congress still hadn’t made cheating in games illegal, Bungie informed the court of the Yout vs. RIAA decision , which relates to the circumvention of technological measures that protect access to a copyright work.

Cheating may not be illegal but without circumvention, this type of cheating wouldn’t exist.

Court Steps in to Clarify the Law

In an order handed down this week, District Judge Richard A. Jones said that since L.L. had properly disaffirmed all contracts due to his status as a minor, he would now address L.L.’s motion to dismiss Bungie’s lawsuit for failure to state a claim.

With no enforceable contract between L.L. and Bungie, the Court dismissed Bungie’s breach of contract claim in connection with the LSLA. Bungie’s claim of fraudulent inducement, related to L.L.’s allegedly false statements when agreeing to the terms of the LSLA, is a matter to be addressed at a later stage, so was not dismissed.

Copyright Infringement

Bungie’s arguments in support of its copyright infringement claim were described by the Judge as “persuasive.” The cheat software “transformed Destiny 2 by manipulating the software to add visual elements overlayed on the original visuals in the game” and since L.L. had no permission from Bungie, that amounts to an unauthorized derivative work.

Attempts by the defense, to play down the anti-cheat provision in the LSLA, also failed. Any use of software to cheat in Destiny 2 was preannounced in the LSLA as grounds for immediate termination of L.L.’s license.

Anti-Circumvention Claim

Regarding Bungie’s anti-circumvention claims, the Court said that L.L. bypassed license access control measures when he agreed to the LSLA but with no intention to abide by it. He also bypassed Bungie’s “step control measures” when he created new accounts after being banned, and when he used cheat software to avoid detection by Bungie’s anti-cheat technology.

“The Court is not persuaded by Defendant’s cherry-picked reading of the DMCA that only establishes a violation when the Defendant decrypts, descrambles, or disables Plaintiff’s software,” Judge Richard A. Jones’ order continues.

“When read as a whole, the statute clearly states that avoiding or bypassing a technological measure violates the DMCA. Therefore, the Court denies Defendant’s motion to dismiss the circumvention of technological matters claim.”

L.L. enjoyed some success with the defeat of Bungie’s claim under the Washington Consumer Protection Act, which related to L.L.’s unauthorized sales of digital emblems. The Court accepted that L.L.’s cheating, selling, and other conduct caused injury to Bungie’s business, but the company failed to show that L.L.’s conduct is of public interest.

With the case set to continue, the Court invited Bungie to submit its first amended complaint.

Judge Richard A. Jones’ order can be found here (pdf)

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

Bungie’s relentless pursuit of cheat developers, sellers, and resellers was probably crafted to send a deterrent message.

After another judgment and multi-million dollar damages award was handed down this week, any cheat developers still operating may consider other companies’ games less of a risk. For those still unconvinced, a judgment handed down Tuesday may be persuasive.

The Domino Effect

Bungie filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against defendants allegedly involved in the development and supply of Destiny 2 cheat ‘Wallhax’ back in August 2021.

In June 2022, Bungie was awarded $13.5m in copyright infringement damages against Elite Boss Tech, Inc., 11020781 Canada Inc., and owner Robert James Duthie Nelson. The defendants admitted that Wallhax injected new code into Bungie’s code, thereby creating an unlicensed derivative work. They also conceded that Wallhax circumvented Bungie’s technological measures in breach of the DMCA.

With an apparently compliant defendant at its disposal, Bungie was able to identify two other key defendants. One of them decided to help Bungie , but the other – Denmark-based developer Daniel Larsen – proved less cooperative.

Bungie’s response included calling in technical experts to paint Larsen’s contribution to Wallhax in an extremely negative light, and him personally as an uncooperative witness. Some may have been tempted to visit the United States to iron things out but according to court documents, Larsen resisted the temptation.

No Defendant Present, No Defense

On Monday, with Larsen thousands of miles away, Bungie filed a motion for default judgment at a Washington court and didn’t hold back. From a technical perspective, the motion wasn’t entirely successful, but that certainly didn’t prevent it from being a success.

Bungie asserted a total of eight claims against Larsen: copyright infringement, violations of the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), violations of the DMCA, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act (CPA), and civil conspiracy.

Seeking entry of default judgment on all claims, Bungie requested over $17.27m in damages, including almost $268k in attorney fees and $80,200 in costs. The company also requested a permanent injunction against Larsen, barring him from similar future conduct.

Successful Copyright Claims

District Judge Tana Lin found in favor of Bungie on its copyright infringement claim. Larsen’s conduct was indeed willful, an important factor in support of Bungie’s claim for enhanced damages.

Regarding Bungie’s RICO claim, the court found sufficient evidence to show that Larsen willfully utilized Bungie’s Destiny 2 software to develop the Wallhax cheat and that Larsen directly infringed Bungie’s copyrights for his own personal gain.

Since Larsen benefited financially from criminal copyright infringement through the sale of 6,000 cheats, with illegal gains also reinvested back into the business, the court was satisfied with Bungie’s RICO claim.

Bungie’s claim alleging violations of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision was equally successful.

“Bungie has provided allegations and evidence that Larsen developed and designed the Wallhax cheat to circumvent Bungie’s technological measures to protect its copyrighted works in violation of § 1201(a) ,” the order reads.

“And Bungie has shown that the Wallhax cheat circumvented the controls and that Larson himself evaded those controls by opening new accounts after being banned. Additionally, Bungie has shown that Larsen violated § 1201(b)(1) by creating an infringing derivative work. The Court finds that entry of default judgment on these claims is proper.”

Computer Fraud, Civil Conspiracy

The court also found that when Larsen intentionally accessed Destiny 2 servers to obtain the Destiny 2 software to create the Wallhax cheat, that amounted to a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ( CFAA ).

When Larsen created multiple accounts after being banned from Destiny 2, he breached the terms of Bungie’s Limited Software License Agreement LSLA , the court found. No evidence supported Bungie’s claim that Larsen breached the Consumer Protection Act but the videogame company’s Civil Conspiracy claim succeeded, with the court noting that Bungie’s evidence was sufficient to show that Larsen conspired with the other defendants.

Default Judgment and Amount

Bungie asked the court for a damages award of $13,530,000 for violations of the DMCA. The court has the discretion to award no less than $200 or no more than $2,500 per act of circumvention, device or performance of service. Bungie requested $2,000 for each cheat downloaded and the court found the amount appropriate. Damages award granted: $13,530,000.

For its claim under the Copyright Act, Bungie asked the court for $466,718.90 in actual and statutory damages and requested the amount to be trebled due to Larsen’s willful conduct. The court said that Bungie failed to provide admissible evidence of actual damages but its claim for willful infringement of two copyrighted works was accepted. Damages award granted: $300,000.

In respect of Larsen’s alleged breach of contract, RICO and CFAA violations, the court awarded damages of $1,999,998. Bungie’s request for an award of $267,887.10 in attorney fees and $80,263.92 in costs was accepted by the court.

In total, the court awarded Bungie $16,178,149.02 in damages and costs, plus a broad injunction to restrain Larsen from any and all future activities similar to those dealt with in this case.

Whether Bungie will be able to collect anything from Larsen is unknown, but the above seems to provide an aggressive framework for dealing with any developers who target Bungie’s games in future.

The order granting default judgment and the judgment itself can be found here ( 1 , 2 , pdf)

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

Over the past several years, major videogame companies have taken cheat developers, sellers, and resellers to court in the United States.

In 2021, American videogame company Bungie upped its game with lawsuits against three major players; Elite Tech Boss , LaviCheats & VeteranCheats .

Bungie’s legal campaign is beginning to pay off. Last summer, the case against Elite Tech Boss resulted in a consent judgment where a key defendant agreed to pay $13.5 million in damages. This was followed by a $12 Million default judgment last month against Veterancheats.

The case against cheat reseller LaviCheats reached its conclusion at a Washington federal court this week. Like the cases against the other cheat operations, this lawsuit wasn’t fully litigated.

Lavicheats Doesn’t Show Up in Court

Earlier this year, Bungie filed a motion for default judgment against LaviCheats. The game company asked the court to rule on the matter without hearing the defendant, as they apparently have no interest in making a court appearance.

Bungie believes that the cheat seller is operated by India-resident Kunal Bansal, AKA “Lavi”. No known address exists for this person so to alert Bansal to the legal proceeding, Bungie sent an email and posted a message in the LaviCheats forums .

These unusual serving options were authorized by the court and achieved the desired result. Although there was no response from the defendant in court, Destiny 2 cheats were removed from the LaviCheats website.

$6.7 Million Default Judgment

In the absence of a proper defense, United States District Judge Tana Lin assumed that Bungie’s copyright infringement claims were true. The same also applies to the financial damages reported by the video game company.

This week, Judge Lin ruled on the motion for default. After concluding that the court has jurisdiction over the foreign defendant and that a default judgment is appropriate, she awarded more than $6.7 million in compensation.

The bulk of the award is made up of statutory damages for ‘willful’ violations of the DMCA. This applies to the cheat’s circumvention of Bungie’s technological protection measures.

With 2,790 downloads of “Bansal Cheats” and $2,000 in statutory damages per download, this amounts to over $5.5 million. This is a reasonable figure, according to the court, which notes that the maximum damages per download would be higher.

“Based on the allegations in the Complaint and the evidence provided, the Court is satisfied that Bansal’s violations of the DMCA were willful and that an award of up to $2,500 per download of the Bansal Cheats is ‘just’.

“Bungie has asked for only $2,000 for each of the 2,790 downloads of the Bansal Cheats and the Court finds that this amount is appropriate,” Judge Lin adds.

Copyright and Trademark Infringement

Bungie allegations also included copyright infringement claims. These damages are not determined by the number of downloads of the cheat software, but by the number of copyrights at stake – two in this case – for which the court granted the $150,000 statutory maximum per infringement.

“Given the adequate allegations of Bansal’s willful copyright infringement, the Court finds that the maximum statutory award is appropriate and awards $300,000 in statutory damages,” Judge Lin writes.

For the trademark violations, Bungie requested damages based on the defendant’s actual profits – between $45,987.58 and $579,270 according to estimates, with the court opting for the higher number.

“The Court accepts as true that Bansal earned the higher amount—given that the allegations in the complaint are accepted as true—and the Court awards $579,270 in damages for the Trademark claims.”

Success!?

There’s no denying that the outcome of this case is a clear win for the Bungie. In addition to the damages awards and additional fees, the order also comes with an injunction requiring Bansal and LaviCheats to stop offering Bungie cheats.

As mentioned earlier, the service has already stopped selling Destiny 2 cheats, so that’s another clearly positive result.

Whether Bungie will be able to recoup any of the damages awarded is questionable, however. The whereabouts of LaviCheats’ operator is unknown and, given his lack of response in the lawsuit, the Indian defendant is unlikely to pay up without external pressure.

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A copy of the default judgment issued by United States District Judge Tana Lin is available here (pdf)

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