Bungie fights back against cheater with federal lawsuit

Bungie fights back against a Destiny 2 Cheat streamer was already banned thirteen times in 2022. Studio, community manager and other staff were threatened with social media threats.

The federal lawsuit, filed on July 15, accuses Luca Leone of Los Angeles of cheating in the game, streaming video of himself cheating in the game, creating numerous accounts to evade the bans handed him for this cheating, and selling nontransferable in-game items — all in repeat violation of the software license and terms of service for Destiny 2.

Leone is also accused of posting threatening and infuriating tweets. These include that he planned to relocate to Seattle where Bungie headquarters are and threaten to blow down the headquarters.

On July 5, the lawsuit says Leone warned Bungie to “keep [its] doors locked.” The suit said Twitter suspended his account and forced him to remove a threatening tweet; the account’s tweets have since been placed in a protected stateThey are kept from the public eye.

Bungie’s suit appears to strike back with every claim it could make under copyright and contract law. Studio claims his serial cheating, and account creation violate the contract that all users must accept in order to create an account. Other actions constitute copyright infringement, fraud, and violations of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Washington state’s Consumer Protection Act.

“It would be a vast understatement to merely describe Leone as a serial ban evader and cheater,” the complaint reads, making note that Leone has “repeatedly livestreamed himself cheating at Destiny 2.” It also includes an alleged conversation from Twitter where, in early June, Leone appears to admit to deliberately circumventing a hardware ban. “Bungie will NEVER be able to stop me,” Leone allegedly said during that exchange.

The suit also alleges Leone, working through “a website notorious as a marketplace for stolen accounts and other criminal fraud,” sold Destiny 2 Emblems, clan names and Bungie accounts are all available.

Bungie’s claim seeks a court order barring Leone from cheating, creating new accounts, or “carrying out his threats or other harassment against Bungie, its employees or players.” It’s seeking statutory damages of $150,000 for each of the numerous copyright violations it alleges (by running cheat software), and $2,500 under the DMCA “per instance of Defendant’s deployment of cheat software” plus court costs and attorney’s fees.

Bungie is taking legal action to defend itself against malicious users. This isn’t the first such case in recent history. One month ago, Bungie sued. Destiny 2 YouTuber who filed several false DMCA claims to disrupt other streamers and the studio’s YouTube channel itself. In January 2021 the studio joined. Valorant Riot Games is to sue the cheat seller and maker.

Dylan Gafner is the author Destiny 2 Community manager targets for harassment said in a tweet on Saturday that the kind of conduct alleged in this lawsuit is a problem for “more studios than ours.

“Cases of harassment against our developers have actively made it harder for us to communicate with the broader community,” he said. “Many in the comments say they do not condone harassment. I hope they also stand against it when they find that friends or family are engaging in it.”