Two years ago, Bungie filed a lawsuit against AimJunkies, the latter of which is a storefront that sells cheats and mods that allow players advantages in online games. One of the games they sold cheat packages for was Destiny 2, which is why Bungie embroiled themselves in a legal battle. The most recent update to the case, last year, saw the US District Court Judge side with AimJunkies, after Bungie claimed that the cheats infringed upon copyrights or the DMCA, to which the judge disagreed and sent the case to arbitration.

After providing further evidence, it was revealed that AimJunkies "used reverse engineering tools" on Destiny 2 to make their cheats, and that they were selling reverse-engineered code that was obtained "maliciously" after many attempted bans in-game. The company also went out of its way to conceal how much money they were making from the cheat selling, and lied about other evidence. Following this, Bungie was awarded $4.3 million dolllars in attorney fees and damages

This claim requires proof of the "intentional destruction of evidence."15 Spoliation is willful if the party acted in bad faith or conscious disregard of the importance of the evidence. 16 Spoliation is considered to have been done in bad faith if the party has "some notice that the documents were potentially relevant to the litigation before they were destroyed."17 In fashioning an appropriate sanction, courts consider: "(1) the potential importance or relevance of the missing evidence; and (2) the culpability or fault of the adverse party."1

There can be no serious doubt that Phoenix and its members engaged in spoliation by their actions after receipt of the November 4, 2022, cease and desist letter from Bungie. Specifically, they lied in response to the letter, failed to preserve many of the financial records concerning sales of the cheats, and either deleted records concerning the Aimjunkies website or failed to stop the automatic deletion of those records. None of this was done innocently.

Bungie has also just entered a new lawsuit against LaviCheats, for similar reasons, and is seeking $6.7 million from that case.

Source

 

[smf]

"used reverse engineering tools"

ghidra?

they were selling reverse-engineered code that was obtained "maliciously"

They didn't just ship patches to the original code?

 

[MarkDarkness]

they were selling reverse-engineered code that was obtained "maliciously"

They didn't just ship patches to the original code?

In my reading they are implying that there was some sort of breach of source code, not just normal memory manipulation and so on.

 

[smf]

In my reading they are implying that there was some sort of breach of source code, not just normal memory manipulation and so on.

They claim it's a DMCA violation because the code is encrypted. I'd probably argue that on an unsecured platform you can't have an effective DRM.

For example, May renamed the reverse engineering tool in order to bypass the security; made alterations to the reverse engineering tool in order to circumvent protections in the game meant to prevent reverse engineering; and used other devices to hide his identity to obtain access to Destiny 2 even after being banned.

There was no breach of the source code. I'd say this was a pretty clear misuse of the DMCA. The defense made a bad job, they could have mentioned https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/judges-ok-garage-door-openers-in-copyright-case/

 

[Kioku]

Hit em harder!

 

[MarkDarkness]

They claim it's a DMCA violation because the code is encrypted. I'd probably argue that on an unsecured platform you can't have an effective DRM.

For example, May renamed the reverse engineering tool in order to bypass the security; made alterations to the reverse engineering tool in order to circumvent protections in the game meant to prevent reverse engineering; and used other devices to hide his identity to obtain access to Destiny 2 even after being banned.

There was no breach of the source code. I'd say this was a pretty clear misuse of the DMCA. The defense made a bad job, they could have mentioned https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/judges-ok-garage-door-openers-in-copyright-case/

That's definitely a strange spin they gave it, then. Makes it sound like something bigger than "they found memory addresses and managed to inject values".

 

[smf]

That's definitely a strange spin they gave it, then. Makes it sound like something bigger than "they found memory addresses and managed to inject values".

Lawyers are paid to word things in such a way that it makes you sound guilty of some huge crime.

An example. Software used by criminals to evade detection by law enforcement, if they find you have a VPN client installed. Even if it's because you used it to connect to home. They aren't saying you used it to evade detection, only that the software is also used that way. It's all about insinuating something to make the person listening believe you are saying something else.

 

[Prior22]

Why can’t shooting games have a setting that allows for unlimited ammo? I would think that’s by far the most popular cheat, and it would be easy for developers to implement.

 

[CMDreamer]

they were selling reverse-engineered code that was obtained "maliciously"

And this is why, decompilation projects are legal, as long as they don't use copyrighted reverse engineered source code for their builds, but their own source code mimicking the original source code's logic.

 

[gaga941021]

"used reverse engineering tools"

ghidra?

they were selling reverse-engineered code that was obtained "maliciously"

They didn't just ship patches to the original code?

Can you not read, my man?

 

[chrisrlink]

personally this can have huge damage to (legal) reverse engineering especially with a rouge SCOTUS I mean the stakes are raised even though this uses original source from bungie if another company (say nintendo) sues the SM64 decompile team and by chance wins thatll be a bad year it only takes one lawsuit victory to give other companies the idea to try to sue legal projects too

 

[NoobletCheese]

I don't understand where the damages are coming from - how did Bungie lose millions of dollars because people were cheating online? I mean cheaters are pathetic losers, but their online presence doesn't cause millions of dollars of damages, does it?

 

[tabzer]

I don't understand where the damages are coming from - how did Bungie lose millions of dollars because people were cheating online? I mean cheaters are pathetic losers, but their online presence doesn't cause millions of dollars of damages, does it?

The typical argument is that public trust of the brand is injured by illegal methods. If the method wasn't determined to be illegal, then I'd assume there'd be not be valid claim of damages.

In the pdf:

"As with respondents' direct circumvention of Bungie's technological measures, Bungie is entitled under the DMCA's antitrafficking provision to statutory damages of up to $2,500 per violation. For the trafficking of a device that circumvents technological measures, respondents are liable for statutory damages of up to $2,500 for each of the at least 1,316 copies of the cheats sold, as well as for each copy of respondents' cheat loader used with the Cheat Software (which directly correlates to sales of the Cheat Software)."

So it doesn't look like they even have to estimate actual damage, as the DMCA already awards the amount on a formula.

Gotta start increasing the prices of those "devices" to $3,300 a pop. When you can profit more than the cost of the fines, you can begin to develop a lucrative international cartel like the banks do. Maybe you can have an internal agreement with the companies that you are "ripping off" and get discounted fines in terms of settlements.

 

[supershadow64ds]

personally this can have huge damage to (legal) reverse engineering especially with a rouge SCOTUS I mean the stakes are raised even though this uses original source from bungie if another company (say nintendo) sues the SM64 decompile team and by chance wins thatll be a bad year it only takes one lawsuit victory to give other companies the idea to try to sue legal projects too

I'm doubtful, considering these modifications were being sold, rather than released. I have a feeling that's also part of the reason Bungie went after them, barring the "it hurt our brand, give money ". Someone makes a cheat client, fine. Get banned. Someone starts to profit off of hurting someone else's work/experience? That's no good.

 

[Ligeia]

I don't understand where the damages are coming from - how did Bungie lose millions of dollars because people were cheating online? I mean cheaters are pathetic losers, but their online presence doesn't cause millions of dollars of damages, does it?

Online play is generally not my thing but I sure wouldn't play any online game with a heavy presence of cheaters. I think cheaters probably cause many regular players to quit and repel many potential new players.

 

[smf]

And this is why, decompilation projects are legal, as long as they don't use copyrighted reverse engineered source code for their builds, but their own source code mimicking the original source code's logic.

Which none of them do, hence why they are illegal.

They get away with it, because not all crimes are prosecuted.

I don't understand where the damages are coming from - how did Bungie lose millions of dollars because people were cheating online? I mean cheaters are pathetic losers, but their online presence doesn't cause millions of dollars of damages, does it?

Because the damages were counted as if they were a copyright violation. This court case was handled very badly by the defense and the prosecution led the judge to a wrong conclusion.

"As with respondents' direct circumvention of Bungie's technological measures, Bungie is entitled under the DMCA's antitrafficking provision to statutory damages of up to $2,500 per violation.

Assuming they violated the DMCA, the prosecution and judge said they did but I'm not convinced.


The DMCA’s basic rule prohibits the act of circumventing technological measures that “effectively control access” to a copyrighted work without the consent of the copyright owner. (An “effective access control” is a measure that in the ordinary course of its operation requires the application of information, or a process or treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.) Prohibited acts therefore include descrambling a scrambled work, decrypting an encrypted work, or otherwise avoiding, bypassing, removing, deactivating or impairing a technological measure without the authority of the copyright owner. For example, assume you have a copy of an encrypted e-book that cannot be read without purchasing the right to access it from the publisher.

My understanding is that the encryption was not used to prevent you playing the game without purchasing it, but to prevent you cheating. Which therefore isn't covered by the DMCA.

 

[NoobletCheese]

Because the damages were counted as if they were a copyright violation. This court case was handled very badly by the defense and the prosecution led the judge to a wrong conclusion.

I still don't understand why they are calling it "damages" , which means "money that we lost". I've not yet seen any evidence of Bungie losing millions of dollars in revenue due to cheaters.

 

[tabzer]

I still don't understand why they are calling it "damages" , which means "money that we lost". I've not yet seen any evidence of Bungie losing millions of dollars in revenue due to cheaters.

I do not think damage means "money we lost", but in this case, "potential money we lost". They don't even have to prove it in this situation (which is normally more difficult to do) because the presumed violation of DMCA makes it "de facto". DMCA, ironically, is circumvention of the legal process (an attempt at justice) that would require some sort of proof, and deliver restitution equal to the actual damage.

 

[Youkai]

Not a fan of big Companies but cheating and helping people to cheat in multiplayer games is the worst and should be punisehd strongly especially as this hurts not only the game developer and publisher but also everyone who wants to properly play the game.

There were so many games in the past which I loved but stopped playing because it wasn't any fun when every single game you played there was at least one guy cheating :/

 

[NoobletCheese]

Not a fan of big Companies but cheating and helping people to cheat in multiplayer games is the worst and should be punisehd strongly especially as this hurts not only the game developer and publisher but also everyone who wants to properly play the game.

There were so many games in the past which I loved but stopped playing because it wasn't any fun when every single game you played there was at least one guy cheating :/

I agree with you , and the legal system is based on innocence until proven guilty, so the developer would have to prove that the cheaters cost them money. Not just "they potentially they cost us money" but "they actually cost us money, provable beyond a reasonable doubt in instances x,y,z, and are therefore liable for damages caused by instances x,y,z" (and not a penny more than was caused by instances x,y,z).