Bungie is suing those behind a series of fake copyright claims that plagued Destiny content creators (and Bungie itself) last week. It just needs to find out who they were first.
As reported by TorrentFreak, the developer is targeting ten anonymous individuals, and while Bungie doesn't yet know their identities, the lawsuit claims "it will discover them soon, via subpoena or otherwise."
Several channels, including Bungie's own, had DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) strikes filed against them, causing YouTube to take a number of videos down. Bungie has criticised the site for not identifying the claims as fraudulent.
The developer said in the lawsuit: "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 [John] Doe 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 defendants allegedly created Google accounts to launch the takedown requests between March 17 and 22, and as Bungie added: "as far as YouTube is concerned, any person, anywhere in the world, can issue takedown notices on behalf of any rights holder, anywhere.
"This caused Bungie significant reputational and economic damage, for obvious reasons. As discussed below, the Destiny community was bewildered and upset, believing that Bungie had reneged on a promise to allow players to build their own streaming communities and YouTube channels on Destiny 2 content."
It will likely take months, if not years, for the lawsuit to resolve, but Bungie seemingly won't hold back in sharing details of the investigation as it seeks to make an example of the defendants.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.