Bungie, the studio behind the wildly popular Destiny franchise, has filed a lawsuit against YouTuber Lord Nazo for allegedly making false DMCA claims on the developer’s behalf.
In December 2021, Nicholas Minors uploaded several Destiny music tracks independently on his YouTube channel. He had done the same thing in the past, but because CSC Global, which works in conjunction with Bungie as a brand protection agency, issued take-down notices to him for infringing upon their IP, Destiny. Minor allegedly created fake accounts issuing 96 DMCA claims on the company’s behalf to popular YouTube channels in response.
It does not stop there; it was reported that Minor also used the accounts to send threatening emails to CSC containing comments like: “You’re in for it now” and “Better start running. The clock is ticking.” The company quickly sent a statement via Twitter, “We’re aware of a series of copyright takedowns on YouTube, and we’re actively investigating. This includes content on our own Bungie channels. These actions are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners. Please standby for future updates.”
With the help of YouTube’s parent company Google, Bungie was able to track down the culprit’s IPs, eventually identifying Minor as the perpetrator of the false DMCA claims and threatening messages. In the investigation, Google sent over “every takedown notice Minor sent from each of those accounts” along with “a log of each IP address used by Minor in connection with the two accounts.”
The lawsuit claims that Bungie is “entitled to damages and injunctive relief, including enhanced statutory damages of $150,000 for each of the works implicated in the Fraudulent Takedown Notice that wilfully infringed Bungie’s registered copyrights, totalling $7,650,000”.
Destiny 2’s latest expansion, The Witch Queen, launched back in February, and was covered by CGMagazine editor Chris De Hoog, where it was awarded a 9/10, and it was described as “the highest peak the franchise has seen in years, if not ever.”
