Unprecedented Ban Hammer Strikes: Destiny 2 Cheater Permanently Barred from All Bungie Games!

Destiny 2 developer Bungie has been actively combating cheaters, even resorting to legal action and suing them for significant amounts of money. While most cases involve groups or organizations selling cheating software, this particular lawsuit focused on a single cheater. The judge ruled in Bungie's favor, imposing a massive penalty of $500,000 on the individual and permanently banning them from playing any Bungie games.

Initially reported by TorrentFreak, some may view the judgment as severe, especially considering that the cheater, Luca Leone, was only 17 years old when the lawsuit was filed a year ago. Leone repeatedly used cheat software to gain an unfair advantage over other players and went further by evading multiple bans. The situation escalated when Leone began threatening bodily harm to Bungie employees, leading to a restraining order.

Leone, like other individuals who have cheated in the past and faced legal action from Bungie, was accused of violating copyright law by using cheat software that included a graphical overlay owned by Bungie. The lawsuit argued that the use of "inject[ed] code" resulted in the creation of an unauthorized derivative work, which is a violation of US copyright law. In addition, Leone was charged additional fees for each account created to avoid being banned, as well as for each unauthorized copy of the game downloaded during this process. As a result, both parties reached an agreement that Leone must pay Bungie $300,000 in statutory damages for copyright infringement, along with an additional $200,000 for 100 instances of ban circumvention, priced at $2,000 per ban evasion.

Moreover, as a consequence of the lawsuit, Leone has been permanently banned from:

interacting with any cheat software that may affect Bungie-owned properties

interacting with Bungie-owned game assets

interacting with any Bungie game whatsoever

harassing Bungie employees (directly or indirectly)

harassing anyone who plays Bungie games (directly or indirectly)

traveling within 1,000 feet of any Bungie offices

Leone is required to refrain from knowingly approaching any residences or apartments occupied by Bungie employees within a radius of 1,000 feet. Additionally, he must completely remove all social media accounts associated with Bungie, his attempts to cheat at Bungie games, or his campaign against Bungie employees.

Some Destiny players are happy when cheaters are punished, but there is also concern about the legal implications of Bungie's copyright infringement cases. A Reddit user pointed out that although their Fallout 76 UI mods are not cheats, they meet the criteria mentioned in Bungie's case against Leone. This raises worries that innocent game modders might face similar accusations based on such judgments.