Now, it looks like the week will get more interesting as a judge has reportedly denied the request of AimJunkies to dismiss the lawsuit that Bungie filed against them. Both parties will be gearing up for a lengthy legal battle with the trial set for 2023. To cap things off, the cheat maker is reportedly looking at suing Bungie for violating terms of service of the aim assist software.
Why did Bungie file a lawsuit against AimJunkies?
Bungie is suing AimJunkies due to copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and “false designation of origin.” In the lawsuit, Bungie alleges that the cheat software infringed its copyright. But, a judge initially dismissed the copyright infringement lawsuit. Apparently, Bungie failed to present evidence that AimJunkies copied its work. Afterward, Bungie refiled the complaint. This time, the developers accused the cheat maker of having “reverse-engineered and copied the software code for Destiny 2”. In its second filing of the complaint, Bungie claims that the cheatmakers “copied the Destiny 2 software code that corresponds to the data structures for player positioning [in] Destiny 2, and reverse engineered the software code for Destiny 2’s rendering functions.” This is with regards to the ESP feature found in the cheat software that allows players to see through walls.
The pushback
AimJunkies is fighting back against the gaming company by issuing subpoenas to Valve, Paypal, and Google. The subpoenas aim to access information held by the companies that may disprove Bungie’s claim that they infringed on Destiny 2 copyrights. Specifically, the Valve subpoena asks the company about the information about the monthly sales figures of Destiny 2. AimJunkies also wants to gain access to the in-game overlays, which they assert aren’t too different from their cheat software. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear what kind of info AimJunkies is asking from Google and Paypal. Additionally, AimJunkies alleged that employees of an unnamed company purchased their cheat program and handed it over to Bungie to be decompiled and analyzed. They claim that this is a violation of the terms of service for their software.
Dismissal
The judge denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit for “lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue.” The judge, in his decision, wrote that Bungie provided sufficient grounds for its copyright claim during the refiling. He also noted that AimJunkies, during its motion, failed to address the issue of “improper venue”. The judge, then went on, to admonish AimJunkies for filing a motion for dismissal that was 13-pages long when the local rules state a 12-pages limit. Earlier this year, Bungie won a similar case against Elite Boss Tech, another cheat software developer. The company is also suing a Youtuber who impersonated the game developer and issued fake DMCA takedown notices against other Destiny 2 content creators. One of Bungie’s lawyers, Don McGowan, issued a statement saying that the lawsuits was “in our view, removing harassment and abuse from our community is not only the right thing to do, it is also good business.” The trial for the Bungie lawsuit against AimJunkies will begin in June 2023.
