Bungie is suing a YouTuber destiny 2 who allegedly retaliated against DMCA evictions on his account by filing false DMCA claims on behalf of Bungie, against other streamers and studios. Bungie’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Wednesday, seeks at least $7.6 million in damages.
DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That is, basically copyright. On YouTube, companies can rely on the DMCA to remove content — such as leaked trailers or full-length movies.
The complaint alleges that Nicholas Minor, who broadcast under the name Lord Nazo, created two fake Gmail addresses posing as employees of CSC Global, a copyright management company representing Bungie. The lawsuit says that Lord Nazo used those addresses to file 96 YouTube removal demands in February, citing the DMCA Act of 1998.
The removal of videos posted by YouTubers My Name is Byf (which has 974,000 subscribers); Aztecross (615,000) and Bungie’s own YouTube account. “The attack of the minor sent shock waves through the community of destiny”, read the complaint. “Content creators describe the horrifying effect of fake removals on their own work, saying, ‘I’m afraid of making new videos. destiny‘Let alone the ones I’ve made'”. In the case of YouTube, if the channel receives three strikes (warning for deleted videos), it is removed from the site.
