In recent years, a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits has targeted alleged cheaters and cheat creators.
Gaming companies have emerged as relatively quick victors in cases that never went to trial, but that is not a fact.
The legal dispute between an American video game developer Bungie and AimJunkies.com has been fiercely contested and heads to a jury trial next week.
Two years ago, Bungie filed a complaint in federal court in Seattle, accusing AimJunkies of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things. The same accusations were made against Phoenix Digital Group, the alleged creators of the Destiny 2 cheat software.
Initially it seemed that the case would be settled quickly, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement. Instead, Bungie forged ahead while AimJunkies went on the defensive and asked the court to dismiss several claims.
AimJunkies argued that cheating is not illegal and refuted allegations of copyright infringement; These were without substance and lacked merit because some of the copyrights referenced were registered long after the cheats were first available, AimJunkies argued.
Dismissal, Hacking and Arbitration
Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly largely on the side of AimJunkies. The original complaint did not provide sufficient evidence for a plausible claim that 'Destiny 2 Hacks' infringed copyright.
This was bad news for Bungie, but the court offered the company the option of filing a new complaint to address these deficiencies, which it did. shortly after.
Meanwhile, AimJunkies did not sit idly by. The cheating seller submitted a counterclaim, accusing Bungie of hacking when it allegedly accessed a defendant's computer without permission. This hacking countersuit was eventually fired.
Bungie scored its first great victory earlier this year in an arbitration proceeding. Judge Ronald Cox found that the cheaters violated the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision and related traffic restrictions, and awarded $3.6 million in damages to the gaming company.
The arbitration ruling is still under appeal and with the battle being fought on multiple fronts, attention returned to the federal lawsuit once again, where Bungie continued its copyright and trademark claims this summer.
In July, the gaming company filed summary judgment motions to resolve the copyright infringement dispute before trial. However, the court denied these motions, as there is no strong evidence that any code was copied from the game. Instead, a jury would have to decide.
Jury trial
After several years, the dispute is about to reach a climax in a Seattle district court, where a jury trial is expected to begin next week. This is the first time a case like this has been presented to a jury, making it a historic event.
At the heart of the dispute is whether AimJunkies engaged in direct, indirect or contributory copyright infringement. If that is determined to be the case, the next question is whether Bungie is entitled to damages.
For AimJunkies, the upcoming trial also raises some concerns. Specifically, the defendant is concerned about the negative connotation of the term "cheating." This may indicate to the jury that the activity is legally inappropriate, contrary to the defendant's legal position.
To avoid confusion, the cheat creator asked the court to ban any mention of the word "cheat" or "cheat software," but the request was denied.
Defenses and counterclaims
At trial, AimJunkies hopes to convince the jury that the cheat software it sold did not infringe any copyrights. In fact, the defendants will allege that they simply sold the software; was created by an anonymous third party.
โThe software in question was created by parties other than the defendants. โThe defendants did not have access to the software that Bungie accuses them of copying,โ the defendants note in a pre-trial statement.
"No software created, developed, marketed, advertised, sold, or otherwise distributed by Defendants infringes any Bungie copyright," adds AimJunkies' attorney.
Trap sellers aren't the only ones on the defensive. Third-party developer James May filed a countersuit accusing Bungie of circumventing the DMCA by accessing personal files on his computer. Bungie, however, maintains that he did nothing wrong.
Bungie may have accessed the developer's computer, but the company claims that none of the files that were allegedly accessed are copyrighted.
โNone of the works that Bungie allegedly accessed are copyrighted works. [โฆ]. "Bungie did not circumvent any of May's technological measures that protect her computer files," the gaming company writes in its pretrial statement.
In general, the arguments of both sides guarantee an intriguing trial. And although AimJunkies is a relatively small player in the broader "cheat" ecosystem, the jury's verdict will likely resonate with many gaming communities.
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Attached is a copy of the pretrial order cited in this article, which includes additional arguments from both sides. available here (pdf)
