Bungie issues lawsuit over DMCA YouTube strikes
Case seeks to reveal the identities of the fraudster copyright reporters & monetary compensation caused by the content takedowns
This past Friday Bungie has filed a lawsuit against anonymous senders of recent fraudulent DMCA strikes.
As reported by Torrentfreak, the suit says that the false reports have disrupted Bungie's player community and streamers, as well as causing "nearly incalculable damage" to the publisher itself.
Last week, the Destiny maker reported that it was aware of a number of copyright takedowns happening to YouTube videos of its title from content creators and those from its own official channels.
Bungie's suit also expresses a concern with YouTube's system and how users can report videos.
"Doe Defendants were able to [send fraudulent notices] because of a hole in YouTube's DMCA-process security, which allows any person to claim to be representing any rights holder in the world for purposes of issuing a DMCA takedown," Bungie explains.
"In other words, as far as YouTube is concerned, any person, anywhere in the world, can issue takedown notices on behalf of any rights holder, anywhere."
The identity of the anonymous DMCA reporters are currently unknown but Bungie has said that it intends to find out with suit.
In addition, the publisher's case is seeking monetary restitution that it says was suffered due to the media takedowns.
"As such, Bungie is entitled to damages and injunctive relief, including enhanced statutory damages of $150,000 for each Fraudulent Takedown Notice that willfully infringed Bungie's copyrights," Bungie said.