"Stupid enough to volunteer as a defendant": Bungie criticizes YouTube's flawed DMCA in a lawsuit against Destiny 2 swindlers 

A couple of weeks ago, the Destiny 2 community was hit with one of the most bizarre things ever. Some of the most prominent content creators, such as Aztecross, faced copyright strike takedowns on YouTube, leading to their respective channels getting very close to getting banned.

However, Bungie filed a legal lawsuit against the mastermind behind these takedowns, as they made themselves very clear regarding their involvement in the matter. In the lawsuit, they have also criticized Google's flawed takedown system, saying how easy it was to fake emails and initiate takedowns.

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Destiny 2 developers take legal action against the mastermind behind recent YouTube takedowns

The entire process started when an individual or a group of people decided to create a fake Gmail account and make fraudulent strikes against big Destiny 2 content creators. However, after the issue was published online, Bungie addressed it by saying it was not done from their end.

Half the damage was already done to some of the biggest channels. Destiny 2 content creator Aztecross already had two strikes within two days, which led him to stop uploading videos. However, the strikes were soon removed from his and other channels.

Things started to get interesting when Bungie decided to take legal action against these fraudsters. The company has filed a lawsuit by incorporating it with Plaintiff. In the lawsuit, Bungie said the following regarding YouTube's flawed DMCA:

"As discussed herein, Doe defendants were able to do this 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."

The company went on to say:

"Between March 17, 2022 and March 22, 2022, a malicious actor or actors exploited that gaping security loophole to issue takedowns, purportedly on behalf of Bungie, to YouTubers and streamers who had - with Bungie's permission as granted in Bungie's Legal Policy on Media, located at https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Legal/IntellectualPropertyTrademarks - uploaded videos of their gameplay on YouTube."

They concluded by saying:

"For now, though, and particularly given the ease with which malicious actors can exploit YouTube's flawed DMCA practice and harm Bungie's community, Bungie brings this action to recover for the Doe's defendants' tortious and illegal conduct, and frankly, to demonstrate to anyone else stupid enough to volunteer as a defendant by targeting Bungie's community for similar attack that they will be met by legal process."

The true identity of these fraudsters remains unknown, but Bungie has said that they will find out about them soon. In addition, the company is also entitled to damages and injunctive relief, including damages of $150,000 for each fraudulent notice that violated Bungie's copyright.

For example, if the number of takedowns is counted up to ten, whoever's behind this needs to pay a total of $1,500,000 added with legal fees.