Bungie is suing a Life 2 The YouTuber who allegedly protested the DMCA takedown leveled his account by filing false claims about the DMCA on behalf of Bungie against other streamers and the studio itself. Bungie’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Wednesdayseeking damages of at least $7.6 million.
The complaint alleges that Nicholas Minor, who broadcasts under Lord Nazo, created two fake Gmail addresses posing as employees of CSC Global, a copyright management company representing Bungie. The lawsuit says Lord Nazo used those addresses in February to submit YouTube 96 takedown requests, citing Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998.
Takedown requests regarding videos posted by YouTube users My name is Byf (who has 974,000 subscribers); Aztecross (615,000 subscribers) and Bungie’s own YouTube account. “Minor’s attack sent shockwaves through Life community,” the complaint said. “Content creators described the chilling impact that false takedowns had on their work, saying, ‘I’m scared to make new Destiny videos, let alone keep the ones I’ve already made. create.'”
Under the DMCA, companies like YouTube are obligated to remove copyrighted user-published content held by others. Such a broad mandate has allowed abuse of the provisions of the statute, with some filing DMCA statements to YouTube and elsewhere to deter business or social media competitors.
Bungie’s complaint alleges that Minor “exploited”[ed] a security hole under YouTube’s DMCA process that allows anyone to claim to be representing a rights owner for takedown purposes without any real protections against fraud.” .
Bungie said Minor launched his retaliatory campaign after he himself was taken down under the DMCA in December 2021, regarding the upload of the original soundtrack for 2015. Destiny: The Taken King. “Ninety-six times, Minor submitted a DMCA takedown notice […] to ask YouTube to instruct innocent creators to delete Fate 2 video or face copyright strikes, disrupting Bungie’s community of players, streamers and fans,” the lawsuit said. “This has caused significant damage to Bungie’s reputation and economy, for obvious reasons.”
In March, Bungie Warn fans via Twitter that they were aware of the copyright takedown requests and said they were “NOT made at the request of Bungie or our partners.” The complaint cites a “Declaration” from Minor, also sent that month to the Destiny community, in which he admits to having falsely taken it down.
“The manifesto reads like a hackneyed ‘see what you make me do letter’ from a serial killer in a bad novel,” Bungie’s lawyers wrote.
The lawsuit is filed in the Western District of Washington state, where Bungie’s headquarters are located. In the complaint, Bungie notes that it “allows players to create videos using Life games” and upload them to YouTube and other services that monetize the content. However, the studio reserves the intellectual property rights and the right to enforce them, in the event of a violation of the spirit of the user-generated content guidelines. Minor’s wholesale upload The Taken KingOST’s violated those guidelines, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit seeks at least $7.6 million, or $150,000 in each of the 51 cases where Minor allegedly infringed Bungie’s registered copyright by making false takedown requests. Other parts of the lawsuit seek unspecified actual and statutory damages, “to demonstrate that serious consequences await anyone else foolish enough to […] Target Bungie’s community to attack. ”
