Bungie, the developer of the Destiny franchise, has filed a lawsuit against YouTuber Lord Nazo, after he allegedly created fake accounts and issued 96 DMCA takedown notices to popular YouTube channels on Bungie’s behalf.
Lord Nazo, real name Nicholas Minor, apparently sought revenge on the development studio after CSC Global, which works in conjunction with Bungie as a brand protector, issued a number of takedown notices to him for uploading the Destiny soundtracks to his channel. The videos were uploaded in December 2021, and removed by YouTube a month later.
On its website, Bungie has outlined what it believes to be fair use of its intellectual properties such as Destiny. It claims to “strongly support” fan-created content, and will allow videos consisting largely of Destiny gameplay as long as “at least 20% of the content within the video has been created by the player.” It however discourages reuploading cutscenes or promotional materials without added commentary or animations.
As reported by The Game Post, Minor allegedly created two fake Gmail accounts under the pseudonyms Jeremy Wiland and Damien Reynolds, posing as employees of CSC. He then used the accounts to issue DMCA strikes against popular Destiny YouTubers such as My Name Is Byf and Promethean, and additionally against Bungie’s own YouTube channel.
He also reportedly used the accounts to send threatening emails to CSC with statements such as: “You’re in for it now” and “Better start running. The clock is ticking.” Bungie was quick to respond and released a tweet stating, “We’re aware of a series of copyright takedowns on YouTube and we’re actively investigating. This includes content on our own Bungie channels. These actions are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners. Please standby for future updates.”
Google, which owns YouTube, aided Bungie in finding the culprit by handing over the IP address of the person who was issuing the fraudulent claims. This is how the company was able to identify Minor as the suspect.
According to the lawsuit, Bungie is “entitled to damages and injunctive relief, including enhanced statutory damages of $150,000 for each of the works implicated in the Fraudulent Takedown Notice that willfully infringed Bungie’s registered copyrights, totaling $7,650,000”.
Bungie recently settled a lawsuit with Elite Boss Tech for the creation of several Destiny cheat domains. The developer received $13.5 million for infringement of its copyright.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.