Bungie claims $7.6 million from Youtuber impersonating him | Xbox One

Between Lord Nazo and Destiny, it’s a great love story, or maybe we should say it was? The YouTubeur responding to the name of Nicholas Minor in civilian life has just been sued by Bungie, who is claiming the tidy sum of $7,650,000. The reason ? The man wanted revenge on the studio… very badly he took it.

A revenge that could cost him dearly

How did we get here ? We have to go back to December 2021 to know the origins of this story. It all starts when Lord Nazo or Nick Minor is as you wish (his true identity was discovered by the site’s journalists The Gamer Post), is receiving a takedown notice after releasing soundtrack music for the Destiny expansion “The Taken King”.

A request made by Bungie who then considered that this publication infringed copyright and violated its policy on the use of intellectual property by fans.

A notification that Minor apparently had nothing to do with, since he decided to leave the soundtrack on his YouTube channel until the platform intervened to have the content removed last January. The story could have ended there, but it was without counting on the reaction of the videographer who did not appreciate the initiative.

Bungie claims that the Youtuber decided to create fake Gmail accounts in retaliation. Its goal ? Impersonating the studio’s brand protection agency to send a wave of fraudulent takedown notices targeting videos posted by members of the Destiny community, including “My Name is Byf, Aztecross”, “The Phoenix” as well as “Promethean”. But impersonating Bungie to make fake DMCA requests probably wasn’t the best thing to do.

This legal action initiated by the developer has generated a statement against the one who also calls himself Lord Nazo on the web:

Taking advantage of the confusion caused by his own bogus DMCA notices, Minor also sent a counter-notification to YouTube, specifically challenging Bungie’s identification of his videos as infringing, based on the idea that the notices might have is part of its own wave of fraudulent withdrawals.

Bungie, creator of Destiny, claims to be entitled to damages as well as injunctive relief, which includes aggravated damages of $150,000 for each of the works involved in the fraudulent takedown notice that deliberately infringes Bungie’s registered copyrights, for a total of $7,650,000 stated above, but that’s not all.

In addition to compensation for copyright infringement, Bungie is also seeking “damages in an amount to be determined during the trial.” A request justified by allegations of defamation, breach of contract and violation of Washington’s consumer protection law.

If we will have to wait a few weeks before knowing the court’s decision, we remember that Bungie has already succeeded in condemning a company specializing in cheating on Destiny 2, an activity which ultimately cost it $ 13.5 million. .

Bungie also asks that you do not try to harass, attack, or attack the offending individual.

Any direct intervention not performed by Bungie’s legal team could impair our ability to address the harm to our community, which is our priority. We have your back and will make sure that person finds the future they deserve. While we appreciate the sentiment, we’re not asking for your help to make it happen.