A lawsuit between Bungie and cheat creating company, Elite Boss Tech is settled, admitting to violations of the DMCA

Destiny 2 is an online only first person shooter developed by Bungie and released in 2017. To this day, it continues to receive updates, so it has an active player base. This popularity has resulted in the game has been the target of a company specialising in cheats, called Elite Boss Tech, resulting in a lawsuit.

Back in August 2021, Bungie filed a lawsuit against Elite Boss Tech for multiple copyright infringement violations and had since been a back and forth between the two, likely leading to a full trial, as a settlement wasn’t clear, until the latter concluded the fight. The company’s owner, Robert James Duthie Nelson and other defendants agreed that the software adds an unauthorised “graphical overlay” in game, injecting third-party code into Bungie’s copyrighted code, which falls under “unauthorised derivative work”

They also agreed that the software fell under the direct violation of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions by circumventing specific measures Bungie created, to control access files and assets in the game. This was all stated to have been done willfully.

The result of the agreement is a payout of around $13,530,000, as the software was downloaded 6,765 times, with each download was seen as a infringing circumvention device, committing statutory damage of $2,000.

The hacks were sold on a subscription basis, $19.95 CAD per month for one or a “VIP subscription for multiple games for $29.99 a month. They still operate, selling cheats for Halo Infinite, Counter Strike: Go, Apex Legends, Warframe and more.

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The post Bungie Lawsuit Sees $13.5 million payout from Destiny 2 Cheat Creator first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In a lawsuit filed by the creators of Roblox (popular free-to-play online children’s game) against one Benjamin Robert Simon (YouTuber ‘Ruben Sim‘) for allegedly leading a ‘cybermob’ that shut down a developer conference, as well as attempts to upload nude photos of himself and Adolf Hitler… Not nude photos of Adolf Hitler, thank god!

The lawsuit was filed in California, with Roblox seeking $1.6 million in damages. The lawsuit also claims Benjamin was banned for a number of years due to racist and homophobic slurs, as well as sexual harassment on Roblox. Considering 99.69% of reports of harassment in online spaces gets swept under the rug, I’m inclined to believe Benny the Jet over here probably stepped over quite a few boundaries to get noticed for that.

“Repeatedly circumventing the technological barriers erected to block Defendant Simon from accessing the Roblox platform after he was permanently banned from the platform and instructing and encouraging others to do the same” – Roblox V Ruben Lawsuit.

“Posting false and misleading terrorist threats to discourage Roblox users from participating in in-person and online events” – Roblox V Ruben Lawsuit

The lawsuit also accuses Benjamin of fraud, breach of contract, and tortious interference

In a San-Francisco report in October 2021, Simon De Beauvoir over here thought it would be hi-larious to post false messages on Twitter that police were searching for an Islamic extremist at the Roblox Developers Conference. That’s rich considering he was making that claim on the platform that let Isis have an official account for a time! The false claim lead to a police investigation shutting down the Roblox Developers Conference, costing $50,000.

A series of now-deleted Tweets also show Benjamin glamorizing the YouTube Headquarters shooting of April 3rd 2018.

Roblox has an estimated worth of some $45 billion, but the game does allow content creators to make their own games on the platform and make money from them, so as far as my leftist ass can advocate for capitalism, at least they’re helping budding game creators get their start in a small way… At least, that’s what I would say if it wasn’t for the casual exploitation of budding developers in other ways, but for more on that, check this video on the topic.

Product Poems:

Robby Robinson, wobsie wobeebee. Such a cute little- OW!

Let lamp go, brother! I can’t help it, it’s so beautiful. Bugs Life.

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The post Roblox Sues Hacker-YouTuber For Hitler and Nudes first appeared on Get2Gaming.

What’s going on?

In July the California state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) Sued Activision blizzard over Sexual harassment, Discrimination and unfair working conditions. It was stated at the time that Activision Blizzard Promoted a “Frat-Boy culture” and that this led to targeted harassment of female members of staff.

A few months later, Activision Blizzard was also Sued by the  federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), however this was settled out of court at a cost of 18 million dollars the same day the news broke.

This resolution angered the DFEH, who filed an Expedited Intervention against the EEOC, with the claim that the EEOC’s settlement would hurt the DFEH’s case. The DFEH fired back claiming that 2 of the EEOC’s Lawyers had worked on the DFEH case which violated the California Rules of Professional Conduct.

The newest info.

While all this was going on, Activision Blizzard requested a pause on the DFEH lawsuit so that the conflict between the DFEH and the EEOC could be resolved. Both Activison Blizzard and the DFEH’s motions have been denied at this time.

Right now it should be noted that the Federal EEOC has the most power in this case, being of a higher level than the State DFEH. Beyond this, the settlement that the EEOC made has started to make changes at blizzard already, with name changes to certain characters and some major changes to names, assets and dialogue in world of warcraft. With this in mind, all the EEOC has to do in this case is to defend themselves.

However, the DFEH is able to grant a greater punishment if they are able to continue with their suit, as state level Can actually impose a harsher sentence on the Party being sued should they win.

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For some extra backstory on Activision Blizzard‘s lawsuit and recent controversies, feel free to have a gander over at some articles written by myself and others here at Go2Games linked at the end.

For now, it’s enough to know that multiple horrific occurrences of workplace mistreatment and discrimination to women and people of colour have been going on at the company and come to the public’s attention.

The first of these lawsuits in July was put forward by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Today, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has officially ended its three-year investigation, ending with Activision receiving accusations of workplace inequality, verbal abuse, harassment, and wage gaps. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has demanded that Activision Blizzard compensate employees affected by the inequality with back pay and damages, as well as insurance that the company would ‘institute and carry out policies, practices, and programs to ensure equal employment opportunities, and which eradicate the effects of its past and present unlawful employment practices’.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, has reached a settlement with the EEOC’s lawsuit and took part in a press release that outlined the promises and conditions of the conditions regarding the agreed settlement. Bobby Kotick has announced the inclusion of updated policies and training programs to combat sexual discrimination, as well as an ‘Equal Opportunity Expert’ who will interact with third-party consultants to make sure the company has sufficiently improved in accordance with the EEOC’s standards.

Activision has also promised an $18 million fund for the sake of compensating employees harmed by the misconduct, and to contribute to non-profit organizations who champion women in gaming and tech industries. I think they could spare a little more since the company’s net worth is $71.6 billion as of July 9, 2021 [Investopedia], but hey, I’m not an economist.

I’m glad Activision getting publicly dragged through the proverbial dirt has made a point of showing it is possible for victims of workplace abuse to speak up and be heard, though to my knowledge, only one known harasser has faced jail time, and that was from 2018 before the controversy became as mainstream as in 2021. Hopefully, other people who took part in the malpractice at Activision Blizzard will be identified and arrested sooner rather than later.

While the compensation will likely go a long way to improving the lives of others (and a little towards the company’s image), I believe Activision reaching a settlement deal is morally questionable at best. And at worst? An example of how having enough money means you can brush off the possibility of more severe punishments under the law. Admittedly, I have been going through a period of re-evaluating my self-proclaimed ‘Leftist’ tramp-stamp, but it is occurrences like this that remind me that in a system where money is the be-all-end-all of how badly someone faces punishment, then changes should definitely be made and advocated for to heavily reduce that as much as possible.

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For more info on Activision Blizzard click on the following article titles:

Over 1000 Employees Condemning Activision Blizzard’s Response to Allegations

Blizzard Will No Longer Name Characters After Real Employees

Activision Blizzard: 3 Senior Blizzard Employees Have Left the Company, Including Diablo 4 Director

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The post Activision Blizzard Settlement! Downsides and Silver Linings first appeared on Get2Gaming.