Last week, a large-scale copyright strike was announced in Destiny 2. Several content creators were penalized with DMCA notices for their Destiny content, including Bungie itself. The developer had previously announced investigations and consequences for this and is now taking action by setting an example with those at fault.
What is it specifically about? As we reported last week, well-known content creators on YouTube, such as Paul Tassi, My name is Byf, and Aztecross, surprisingly received copyright strikes for their “Destiny 2” videos.
The community was confused as to why the creator of Destiny 2 suddenly turned against its best content creators, even though the use of music, assets, and video material for non-commercial content creation had always been permitted.
But Bungie knew nothing: Shortly thereafter, Bungie announced on Twitter that neither the developer nor its partners were responsible for the DMCA strikes (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Bungie was even affected itself.
We are aware of a number of copyright takedowns on YouTube, and we are actively investigating this. This includes content on our own Bungie channels. These actions are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners. Please wait for future updates.
Bungie wrote via Twitter
In the TWaB, Bungie further clarified: The next statement and information about the incidents was provided by Bungie in the weekly TWaB (“This Week at Bungie” blog). They take this matter very seriously and have found that the takedown notices were sent from a fraudulent Google account. This was evidently done so well that it impersonated Bungie’s anti-piracy partner CSC-Global.
In collaboration with Google, the account used was finally deactivated. At the same time, Bungie ensured that the takedowns and copyright warnings were reversed and announced consequences. They intend to find the fraudsters behind the action and hold them accountable.
Bungie wants to take action against the copyright strike fraudsters
Bungie initially criticized Google and YouTube. It is far too easy to issue such fraudulent notices. When Google refused to release the data, Bungie filed a lawsuit in the United States to compel Google to do so.
Thanks to YouTube’s easy-to-use reporting system, the attack was successful, and videos were taken down based on the fraudulent notice, and YouTubers were issued “copyright warnings” that jeopardize the future viability of their YouTube channels according to YouTube’s rules.
Excerpt from Bungie’s lawsuit
The search engine giant has already agreed to make improvements to its system in the near future to prevent such incidents from happening again.
For the developer, this is untenable: Destiny 2 has been voluntarily supported by content creators on YouTube and other channels for years. Since Destiny 2 is free to play, community videos have encouraged other players to check out the content of the first-person shooter for years. This is reason enough for Bungie not to take this attack lightly and to protect its honest community by all means.
Destiny 2 suffers “almost incalculable damage” on YouTube: Especially because this has “caused significant reputational and economic harm to Bungie for obvious reasons,” as the developer describes it. Furthermore, they note that “the Destiny community was confused and upset because they believed Bungie had broken its promise to allow players to build their own streaming communities and YouTube channels for Destiny 2 content.” For Bungie, this is no laughing matter.
Additionally, Bungie had to expend significant internal resources to address the issue and assist its players in recovering their videos and channels.
Bungie suspects retaliation and likely knows the culprits
As has now become known, Bungie sees this incident as a form of revenge against the franchise. They suspect that YouTube users who were previously affected by legitimate DMCA strikes decided to give Bungie “a lesson.” This was allegedly accomplished through a wave of fraudulent DMCA notices sent under the name “Bungie Inc.”
They sent fake messages to the 41 affected content creators. The original and legitimate Google email address that was used for the takedowns of the videos was fraudulent.
Bungie apparently already knows the culprits: If Google discloses the senders and it turns out that the YouTubers rightfully blocked by Bungie are responsible for the DMCA strike sent in early March as their personal act of revenge, the list of accused could indeed be narrowed down quickly.
According to the lawsuit, the accused even submitted a DMCA notice against their own YouTube accounts to deceive the situation, so that they appear as victims instead of perpetrators.
How does Bungie come to this conclusion? This method was uncovered because evidently one of the accused sent emails to the affected YouTubers after the incident, indirectly admitting their involvement in the content strikes while simultaneously apologizing to them.
They blamed YouTube and Bungie for the system’s failings, such as not adequately responding to the previously sent fraudulent notice. Furthermore, the mentioned email continues:
[…] Finally, I know this means very little, but I apologize to you and all others affected by my selfish actions. You have every right to be angry with me. My goal was to make Bungie see the fraudulent content strikes and stop them. That’s all.
This insight unfortunately comes too late: Currently, Bungie has no interest in this apology. By sending fraudulent DMCA notices, they have spread “significant misrepresentations,” resulting in a claim for damages.
The trademarks of Bungie Inc. have been violated here with fraudulent intent. By having the videos removed from YouTube that contained copyrighted Bungie content, the company’s right to approve the public display and broadcast of its copyrighted works has been violated. Furthermore, there are also allegations of commercial defamation and violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
How serious Bungie is about this is shown by the damages claim from the complaint:
Therefore, Bungie is entitled to damages and injunctions, including an increased statutory damages amount of $150,000 (135,672 Euros) for each fraudulent takedown notice that willfully infringed Bungie’s copyrights.
Excerpt from the Bungie lawsuit (via Torrentfreak.com)
The copyright strike or the general suspension of a video was primarily a disaster for the content creators. They had to fear for their livelihood because the fact that they are allowed to use Bungie content has always supported them in their work. Bungie intends to avoid such incidents in the future with the lawsuit but will not further discuss the incidents of the legal dispute.
What do you think about this? Is Bungie on the right track to tackle the fraudsters, or do you find their approach too harsh? How would you have acted?
What do you think about the convoluted idea of highlighting a problem through an illegal DMCA content strike and then apologizing via email to the affected parties? Is it just hurt pride? How would you, as a content creator, react to such “colleagues”? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.
