A federal court in Seattle has ruled that the sale of cheats for Destiny 2 is an infringement of Bungie's copyright. This is the first time that game cheat sellers have been found guilty of copyright infringement. This was reported by VGC.
The court found the AimJunkies website, the Phoenix Digital Group website operator, and developer James May liable for copyright infringement. They are obliged to pay Bungie $63,210.
Bungie has already filed a lawsuit in June 2021 against the AimJunkies website and Phoenix Digital for copyright infringement. Back then, the court ruled in favor of the company, not because of copyright, but because of violation of the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions. The company and the website were forced to pay a fine of $4.3 million.
As for the copyright infringement, the court ruled that the company did not explain or provide sufficient evidence that its rights had been violated.
This time, however, Bungie won the lawsuit, which was filed against the company by the cheaters themselves, as Stephen Totilo of Game File reported. James May, who was a cheat developer and seller, claimed that the company had illegally entered his computer and that although people may not like cheats, they are not illegal.
After the court's decision, Phoenix Digital Group founder David Schaefer told Totilo that he and his company would try to overturn the verdict, and if not, they would appeal it. In particular, because Bungie allegedly has not yet provided full information on how cheats infringe copyright.
Earlier, Bungie has already won a similar lawsuit, which also dealt with the infringement of Destiny 2 copyrights through cheats, but in that case it was only about their use, this time it is about the sale and distribution. The company received $500 thousand in compensation.