Bungie filed a lawsuit against Nicholas Minor, claiming that after receiving a copyright infringement notice on their Destiny 2 YouTube videos, they retaliated by creating a series of fake Bungie email addresses and sending DMCA notices to others. YouTube users posing as the company.
Minor owned a YouTube account under the name of Lord Nazo. According to a statement from Bungie, in December 2021, CSC Global, acting as the developer’s brand advocate, sent a takedown notice to Minor after he uploaded the soundtrack for the Destiny The Taken King expansion to YouTube. Minor reportedly refused to remove the videos of him and kept them online until YouTube took them down in January. Minor then registered a new Gmail address that mimics the email addresses of CSC Global employees.
In February, another Destiny soundtrack was uploaded to Lord Nazo’s channel, this time from the Destiny 2 Witch Queen expansion, and once again, Bungie issued an official takedown notice. Minor then allegedly registered a similar second email address with CSC and, according to Bungie, “began sending out a wave of fraudulent takedown notices.”
Bungie became aware of Minor’s actions when Google sent it data describing recent takedown notices issued by the alleged “CSC” along with the IP address from which they were sent. The former Halo developer alleges that Minor orchestrated the campaign to damage his reputation with players and the Destiny community as retaliation for the copyright infringement Minor received. Lord Nazo’s online accounts for spreading “misinformation” about Bungie and the wave of bogus DMCA investigations that Minor himself orchestrated.
“Ninety-six times,” the studio’s lawsuit explains, “Minor sent DMCA takedown notices, apparently on behalf of Bungie, identifying itself as Bungie’s ‘brand protection’ provider, for which YouTube asks creators innocent to remove their videos from Destiny 2 or face. to them. copyright infringement that disturbs the community of players, streamers and Bungie fans. And in the meantime, “Lord Nazo” has participated in the public discussion of the takedowns from Bungie, spreading misinformation.
“This significantly damaged Bungie’s reputation and finances for obvious reasons. As described below, the Destiny community was confused and upset, believing that Bungie had reneged on its promise to allow players to create their own streaming communities and YouTube channels based on Destiny 2 content. the Destiny community were also misled into believing that a trademark Bungie protection agent was also a scam, causing confusion among users as to the authenticity of legitimate DMCA notices. Bungie had to commit significant internal resources to resolve this issue and help its players get their videos and channels back.”
Bungie is currently seeking damages totaling $7.6 million to $150,000 “for each of the jobs mentioned in the fraud notice.” We will continue to update you on this story as it develops.
Source : PC Gamesn
