Bungie, the developers behind the beloved free-to-play live service shooter, Destiny, have reportedly found the culprit behind the fake copyright strikes made against Destiny 2 YouTube videos.
Back in March, Bungie announced that they would find the individuals responsible for the fake DMCA takedowns and sue them. It seems like they’ve followed through on their threats and have discovered that a YouTuber by the name of Nicholas Minor (Lord Nazo on YouTube) had been hitting other YouTubers with the fake DMCA takedowns. He reportedly had gotten a real takedown from Bungie prior to doing this.
“Ninety-six times, Minor sent DMCA takedown notices purportedly on behalf of Bungie,” the developer explained. “[He identified] himself as Bungie’s ‘brand protection’ vendor in order to have YouTube instruct innocent creators to delete their Destiny 2 videos or face copyright strikes, disrupting Bungie’s community of players, streamers, and fans.”
Bungie also stated that Minor had been involved in community discussions surrounding the takedowns, “spreading disinformation. This caused Bungie significant reputation and economic damages, for obvious reasons.”
Minor retaliated against a DMCA strike by Bungie
Minor had a video issued a DMCA notice by Bungie after he uploaded the soundtrack for the expansion, The Taken King, to his YouTube channel. After being issued the notice, he refused to remove the videos and left them until YouTube removed them in January.
Afterwards, he allegedly decided to retaliate by creating a new Gmail account that was designed to mimic that of employees of CSC Global, the company responsible for enforcing Bungie’s copyright. He then proceeded to issue fake DMCA notices to YouTube Destiny 2 creators.
In the lawsuit, Bungie explains: “The Destiny community was bewildered and upset, believing that Bungie had reneged on a promise to allow players to build their own streaming communities and YouTube channels on Destiny 2 content. Destiny community members were also misled to believe that Bungie’s brand protection agent was also fraudulent, causing confusion among users as to the authenticity of legitimate DMCA notices. Bungie had to devote significant internal resources to addressing it and helping its players restore their videos and channels.”
Bungie is suing Minor for a massive sum of $7.6 million, about $150,000 for each of the videos taken down due to his fraudulent notices.
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
