‘Destiny 2’ dev can’t pursue copyright claims against cheat maker
The developer of free-to-play shooter “Destiny 2”, Bungie, cannot levy copyright infringement claims against cheat maker AimJunkies.com, but can still proceed with with its trademark action, a Washington court has ruled.
In an order published on Wednesday, April 27, the US District Court for the Western District of Washington granted AimJunkies and its owner Phoenix Digital’s motion to dismiss the claims that it it had infringed Bungie’s copyright by selling cheat programs for “Destiny 2”.
However, judge Thomas Zilly denied the defendants motion to compell mandatory arbitration for the remaining causes of action.
Bungie bought a total of nine causes of actions against AimJunkies, specifically copyright infringement, trademark infringement, false designation of origin, circumvention of technology, breach of contract, tortious interference, violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and unjust enrichment.
AimJunkies moved to dismiss the claims, alleging that Bungie had failed to sufficiently plead its claims and argued that all but the copyright and trademark infringement claims were “subject to binding arbitration” according to “Destiny 2’s” own limited software license agreement (LSLA).
Zilly ruled that Bungie had failed to prove that Aimjunkies had “copied constituent elements” of Destiny 2. Instead, Bungie had claimed that the cheat software constituted copying and reproducing Bungie’s work without its permission. As a result, Zilly dismissed Bungie’s claims of copyright infringement.
However, Aimjunkie’s unauthorised usage of the “Destiny” trademark to market its cheats was evidence enough to maintain trademark infringement action, the court ruled.
As Bungie had demonstrated it owned a valid trademark for “Destiny”, the court agreed that AimJunkie’s use was likely to cause confusion and therefore denied Aimjunkie’s bid to throw out the false designation of origin claims.
The court granted the bid to compell arbitration for the all remaining causes of action. It also dismissed all actyions against four individuals listed as defendants, claiming that Bungie did not clearly assert whether they were liable for the claims “solely” because of their relationship to Phoenix Digital.
Bungie launched its complaint against Aimjunkies in June last year, alleging that the cheat suite sold by Aimjunkies would “circumvent” and “evade” protection measues in the game in order to give players an unfair advantage.
“Cheaters ruin the experience of playing ‘Destiny 2’. Not only do cheaters impair the enjoyment of gameplay by non-cheaters with whom they interact in-game; cheaters illegitimately obtain and thereby devalue the in-game rewards that non-cheaters obtain Legitimately,” said Bungie.
This cheat software, Bungie claimed infringed its IP and breached the games software licensing agreement.
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