Judge Dismisses “Insufficient” Copyright Claims in Destiny 2 Cheating Case
upstart writes:
Judge dismisses "insufficient" copyright claims in Destiny 2 cheating case:
When game makers go to court to stop cheat makers, they often rely on claims that the cheat tools represent a form of copyright infringement on the original game. Last week, though, a federal judge dismissed such copyright claims in a case against a Destiny 2 cheat maker, saying developer Bungie has "not pleaded sufficient facts to plausibly allege that [the cheat maker] copied constituent elements of Bungie's work."
[...] In its initial complaint, Bungie alleged that the Aimjunkies cheat software is "identical or substantially similar to the copyrighted works [i.e., Destiny 2]." It also alleges that Aimjunkies' tools "infringe Bungie's Destiny Copyrights by copying, producing, preparing unauthorized derivative works from, distributing and/or displaying Destiny 2 publicly, all without Bungie's permission."
In a ruling obtained by Torrentfreak, though, Western District of Washington Judge Thomas Zilly notes that Bungie has "not pleaded any facts explaining how the cheat software constitutes an unauthorized copy of any of the copyrighted works identified in the complaint." Simply alleging that copyright infringement happened is not enough, Judge Zilly writes, citing precedent to assert that "Bungie's complaint must contain more than a 'formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.'"
Furthermore, Judge Zilly says that Bungie's own Destiny 2 license agreement prevents the company from making a federal case out of many of Aimjunkies' alleged bad acts. Under that license agreement, arguments regarding technical circumvention of technological protection measures, trafficking in circumvention technology, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment must be referred back to arbitration rather than argued before the courts, Judge Zilly writes (Bungie seems to have acknowledged this fact via a voluntary filing in February).
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