Destiny 2 cheat creators cough up $13.5 million to Bungie for damages to copyright
Now that's a lot of glimmer.
Nearly a year since Bungie first filed a lawsuit against cheat provider Elite Boss Tech, the illicit company has agreed to pay $13.5 million to the developers of Destiny 2 for infringing on their copyright. As first reported on by TorrentFreak, this marks the conclusion of a long and costly battle for the defendants, who have found themselves suddenly strapped for cash (which is a good thing).
The company, including named defendants and several anonymous creators and providers of cheats, are also permanently banned from further creation or distribution of any software that infringes on intellectual property belonging to Bungie.
As to how the lofty $13.5 million figure was reached, an agreement between Bungie and Elite Boss Tech had the latter party admit to thousands of violations of the Bungie DMCA software present in Destiny 2. Since the software which breached this DMCA was downloaded 6,765 times, with each violation representing $2,000 in damages, those figures multiply to reach the total amount.
It was just last August (2021) that Bungie filed the lawsuit against Elite Boss Tech, claiming that the creation and distribution of cheating software was a clear breach of their copyright. All additional charges have been withdrawn by Bungie, including fraud, money laundering, and racketeering.
What are your thoughts on this decision? Do you hope it sets a precedent moving forward for other developers to go out and clamp down on cheater providers? Let us know below!
For more Destiny 2 content, check out our pieces on Destiny 2 Who Wants to be a Millionaire, as well as Warlocks loving the new Solar 3.0 rework!