Bungie
They wanted to make money by selling cheat tools to fate 2 players. They may have set a legal precedent in the US.
After a trial in federal court in Seattle last week, a jury found scam seller AimJunkies, along with parent company Phoenix Digital and four of its employees and contractors, liable for copyright infringement and awarded damages to each. The jury split $63,210 in damages, with $20,000 going to Phoenix Digital itself and just under $11,000 each to the four individuals. That’s just short of the $65,000 in revenue the defendants claim they generated from 1,400 copies fate 2 cheating.
Bungie’s case appears to have gone further than any other fraud case in the US court system. Because cheating in an online game is not illegal per se, game companies usually rely on the anti-circumvention aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. So the creators of Grand Theft Auto V, Overwatch, Rainbow Sixand Fortnite have pursued their cheating antagonists. Bungie accepting the claim after a settlement and then winning a copyright claim by jury may have given the game makers a case to point to in future proceedings, and perhaps more incentive.
AimJunkies may still appeal the jury’s decision; Phoenix Digital founder David Schaefer told Stephen Totillo that he plans to fight the verdict. A separate arbitration award focused on DMCA violations, which awarded Bungie $4.4 million in damages and fees from AimJunkies, remains under appeal, with AimJunkies claiming the arbitrator “clearly disregarded” the arbitration terms.
Meanwhile, in the game itself, a new subclass, Prismatic, “allows you to combine Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, and Strand into a custom subclass of your own design.” There’s just a lot going on fate 2.
Bungie
Claims of hacking and possibly missing bitcoin
As reported by TorrentFreak and Law360 in the courtroom, AimJunkies’ attorney stood by his argument that without access to fate 2the source code of, they could not have committed copyright infringement. Instead, the scammer manipulates object code or compiles output to make their tools work.
Developer James May also backed up his claims that he wasn’t a key part of the cheat code and that Bungie “hacked” his computer. The hacking counterclaim survived an earlier rejection in which AimJunkies and May claimed that Bungie’s cheat monitoring software reverse-engineered their code and violated the DMCA and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The judge at the time criticized CAFA’s claims for lack of evidence, but allowed an amendment and filing. The jury did not find a verdict for May on his counterclaim against Bungie.
In Bungie’s complaint (PDF) and opening arguments (as noted by Polygon from Law360’s paid reports), there are confusing hints as to why the actual damages are relatively small. Bungie claims it has records showing Phoenix Digital paid May more than $700,000 for work on the scams, but sales records from Phoenix only show $43,000 in sales. Bungie’s complaint asks the jury to consider “theft of evidence,” including deleted cryptocurrency records, forum messages and sales information. Most of the hearings and motions on these matters remain sealed in the case.
At some point in mid-2022, with Bungie’s suit pressing, AimJunkies posted a press release on its site that it had been purchased by “Blome Entertainment,” a Ukrainian firm. Phoenix Digital founder David Schaefer told Bungie’s lawyers that he drafted that press release to antagonize Bungie’s lawyers, according to opening statements. At one point, Shafer was ordered to pay Bungie a $5,000 penalty for “harassment and unprofessional conduct” at a deposition.
The three-year journey to judgment
Bungie’s victory in the case was far from certain. Bungie first sued AimJunkies in June 2021. AimJunkies removed its fraud and entered into settlement negotiations with Bungie, but Bungie sought summary judgment in November 2022 following AimJunkies’ lack of response.
The judge overseeing the case ruled a little more than two years ago that Bungie had “failed to state sufficient facts” that AimJunkies had copied its work, although it gave Bungie time to correct and refile. Western District of Washington Judge Thomas Seeley also noted this fate 2Bungie’s license agreement prohibits Bungie from suing AimJunkies for matters involving circumvention, contract, and enrichment. In a rare bit of Click to Agree working against the publishing corporation, 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 required for a CFAA claim.
Phoenix Digital attorney Phil Mann told Polygon that the evidence did not support the verdict. Mann added that the reward amount “will reveal once and for all that all those bogus ‘million dollar bounties’ that Bungie previously received against a few kids in a garage who couldn’t fight back are just for show and don’t reflect reality.”
Bungie attorney James Barker told multiple outlets that the company is “committed to our players and will continue to defend them against fraud, including taking this and future cases to court.”
