author: Miriam Moszczynska
Youtuber Fined $7.7 Million for Wanting to Get Back at Bungie
Destiny 2 content cretor wanted to take revenge on Bungie for ordering him to remove the materials. However, he chose an illegal route by impersonating CSC Global.
One Destiny 2 streamer decided to pay Bungie back by impersonating employees of the company protecting the studio's brand. However, revenge was not sweet. For his prank, Lord Nazo was sued for nearly $7.7 million.
How did this happen?
Well, the case began when the streamer used music tracks from the official soundtrack of Destiny 2 on his YouTube channel. The situation took place in December 2021, and the videos were pulled down from the website just a month later.
It happened because of Bungie's copyright, of course. While the company supports content creators, uploading music tracks to the channel was one step too far. While Lord Nazo deserved to have his videos taken off YouTube, he was not unhappy with this turn of events.
Impersonation
This March (via The Game Post) both Bungie and community-recognized creators such as My Name Is Byf, Promethean, and Aztecross had to deal with YouTube strikes plaguing them.
As noted in the lawsuit filed by Bungie, Nicholas Minor, a.k.a. Lord Nazo, was responsible for reporting the videos on the platform. The man impersonated two employees of CSC Global (a company that protects the Bungie brand) and sent content submissions - 96 in total.
"Ninety-six times, Minor sent DMCA takedown notices purportedly on behalf of Bungie, identifying himself as Bungie’s “Brand Protection” vendor in order to have YouTube instruct innocent creators to delete their Destiny 2 videos or face copyright strikes, disrupting Bungie’s community of players, streamers, and fans. And all the while, “Lord Nazo” was taking part in the community discussion of “Bungie’s” takedowns, spreading disinformation," reads the lawsuit.
Bungie takes matters into its own hands
Of course, the company did not pass by such an offense indifferently. Bungie expects Lord Nazo to pay $150,000 in damages for each video in the case, bringing the total to nearly $7.7 million.
One of the youtubers whom Lord Nazo tricked also spoke out on the matter, saying that YouTube's copyright policy sucks, to put it lightly. Owen Spence shared screenshots of the conversations on Twitter, proving that the youtuber was sympathetic to the creators he reported. Such behavior requires no comment.
