Thus AirJunkies was able to set a precedent, as there was no example of a site dealing with fraud being found guilty of copyright infringement.
Last year, a judge ruled that AimJunkies must pay more than $4.3 million to Bungie, which sued the site and parent company Phoenix Digital in June 2021 for copyright infringement. In April 2022, a federal court in Seattle denied Bungie's request in part because, according to it, the studio, now owned by Sony, did not adequately explain how cheat software could be considered an unauthorized copy of Bungie's work. However, the court referred other copyright claims to arbitration, specifically claims that the software violated the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA. This resulted in a $4.3 million fine.
BREAKING: Bungie has won its lawsuit against Aimjunkies/Phoenix Digital. Only five figures for payouts, since only the cheaters' income was in play
The jury sided with Bungie. Aimjunkies' counterclaim alleging that Bungie illegally accessed one of their computers was dismissed https://t.co/dx3KKsFzYy
– Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) May 24, 2024
Now, in another suit also in Seattle, another judge, who dealt mainly with the objectionable copyright aspect of the previous suit, has decided that AimJunkies, Phoenix Digital Group, and third-party developer James May (not one of the main characters in Top Gear…) all committed In violation of copyright, the three must therefore pay a total of $63,210 (about 23 million Hungarian forints) to Bungie. This was reported by TorrentFreak. May appealed, claiming that Bungie bypassed technological procedures and hacked his device, but this was rejected and he was ruled against.
“We are grateful for the diligence, professionalism, and diligence shown by the judge, his staff, and the jury,” James Parker, Bungie's attorney, told Game File's Stephen Totilo. “We are committed to our players and will continue to defend them against cheaters, including taking this and future cases to court.”
However, who knows how much publishers and developers will take action against individuals and companies developing scams next, as this could be a bad omen for them.
source: VGC, torrentfreak, Game file
