{"id":78944,"date":"2024-09-03T09:01:31","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T09:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=78944"},"modified":"2024-09-03T09:01:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T09:01:31","slug":"court-denies-cheat-seller-aimjunkies-a-new-trial-affirms-bungies-4-3m-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=78944","title":{"rendered":"Court Denies Cheat Seller AimJunkies a New Trial, Affirms Bungie\u2019s $4.3m Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aimjunkies\"Three years ago, Bungie<\/a> filed a complaint<\/a> at a federal court in Seattle, accusing Destiny 2 cheat seller AimJunkies.com<\/a> of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things.<\/p>\n

The same accusations were also leveled against Phoenix Digital Group, the operating company behind the website, and third-party developer James May.<\/p>\n

Bungie Wins Landmark Trial<\/h2>\n

After years of legal back-and-forth, the case went to trial in May, where both sides presented their arguments. AimJunkies, in particular, emphasized that the defendants never accessed or modified any of Destiny 2\u2019s copyrighted game code.<\/p>\n

Bungie, on the other hand, argued that AimJunkies\u2019 copyright-infringing activities were blatant and obvious. At the end of the trial, the Seattle jury ruled in favor of the video game company.<\/p>\n

After the hearings concluded, the jury found all defendants liable for direct, vicarious, and contributory copyright infringement. Phoenix Digital Group and all individual defendants were ordered to pay damages equivalent to the actual profits they earned, a total of $63,210<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Court Denies AimJunkies a New Trial<\/h2>\n

The jury verdict was a clear victory for Bungie, but it didn\u2019t mark the end of the legal battle. AimJunkies had previously filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law, contending that it was evident they hadn\u2019t infringed on Destiny 2\u2019s copyrights.<\/p>\n

The district court was therefore asked to overrule the jury\u2019s decision and enter a new verdict. Alternatively, the court could order a new trial, offering AimJunkies another chance to defeat Bungie. <\/p>\n

Last week, United States District Judge Thomas Zilly denied the request for a do-over. Judgment as a matter of law may be granted if the evidence only allows for one reasonable conclusion<\/em>, which runs contrary to the jury\u2019s verdict. That\u2019s not the case here.<\/p>\n

Judge Zilly writes that Bungie was required to prove that it owned the copyrights and that these were infringed by AimJunkies. The presented evidence supports that, he concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A]t trial Bungie needed only to establish that the \u2018Cheat Software\u2019 distributed by Defendants had copied protected aspects of Destiny 2. Bungie could show that Defendants copied protected aspects of Destiny 2 with either direct or circumstantial evidence of copying. Both types of evidence were presented at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, both Bungie and AimJunkies agreed that the cheat software affected the audiovisual output of Destiny 2. That alone, is sufficient to support the jury\u2019s verdict that defendants engaged in copyright infringement.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Denied<\/em><\/center>
\"trial<\/center><\/p>\n

$4.3 Million Arbitration Award<\/h2>\n

Before the trial took place, several of the claims presented in the lawsuit had already been resolved by an arbitrator. The arbitration process was conducted behind the scenes and resulted in a resounding win for the game developer. Bungie was awarded almost $4.4 million<\/a> in damages and fees.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the award was DMCA-related damages. According to arbitration Judge Ronald Cox, the evidence made it clear that AimJunkies and third-party developer James May bypassed Bungie\u2019s technical protection measures in violation of the DMCA.<\/p>\n

In addition to breaching the DMCA\u2019s anti-circumvention provisions, the defendants were also found liable for trafficking in circumvention devices. Or, put differently, selling and shipping the cheats.<\/p>\n

The AimJunkies defendants were disappointed in the arbitration outcome and decided to challenge it at the court of appeal<\/a>. According to the cheat sellers, the arbitration process was not fair and correct. <\/p>\n

The arbitrator relied heavily on evidence from Bungie\u2019s witness, Dr. Kaiser, and denied cross-examination of the same witness, the defendants argued. This prevented AimJunkies from challenging the credibility of this key witness. <\/p>\n

Appeals Court Denies AimJunkies\u2019 Arbitration Appeal<\/h2>\n

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court denied AimJunkies\u2019 appeal. The court found that the district court did not err in confirming the $4.3 million arbitration award, concluding that the arbitrator didn\u2019t prevent the defendants from challenging the witness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Arbitrator did not entirely dismiss AimJunkies\u2019 attempt or ability to impeach Dr. Kaiser,\u201d Judges Nguyen, Johnstone and Ezra concluded <\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, AimJunkies\u2019 counsel could have tried to rephrase its question, question Dr. Kaiser about his transcripts, or read Dr. Kaiser\u2019s transcripts into the record to impeach Dr. Kaiser. AimJunkies\u2019 counsel did not attempt to do so. <\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, counsel abandoned the line of questioning entirely. This in no way amounts to an error [\u2026], especially not an error that was \u2018in bad faith or so gross as to amount to affirmative misconduct\u2019 [\u2026] and thus deprived the parties of a \u2018fundamentally fair\u2019 hearing.\u201d <\/p>\n

The arbitrator did not show \u201ca manifest disregard\u201d of law, no clear errors were made, and the scale of the award was not \u201ccompletely irrational.\u201d <\/p>\n

As a result, the court of appeal affirmed the $4.3 million arbitration award.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Affirmed<\/em><\/center>
\"affirmed\"<\/center><\/p>\n

As a result, Bungie emerges the clear winner once again. AimJunkies won\u2019t get a new trial and the arbitration award, which was previously put on hold pending the appeal, can now be collected. <\/p>\n

While there may still be further challenges ahead, AimJunkies\u2019 outlook is ever more grim. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

A copy of the Seattle District Court\u2019s order is available here (pdf)<\/a>. The order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals can be found here (pdf)<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, Bungie filed a complaint at a federal court in Seattle, accusing Destiny 2 cheat seller AimJunkies.com of copyright and trademark infringement, among other things. The same accusations were also leveled against Phoenix Digital Group, the operating company behind the website, and third-party developer James May. Bungie Wins Landmark Trial After years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}