Bungie sues man who sent takedown requests on Bungie’s behalf

Bungie has filed a lawsuit against a person who falsely sent summons on behalf of the company to YouTube creators to take Destiny 2 content offline. Bungie is seeking $7.6 million in damages.

Bungie claims, among other things, that there is reputation damage and economic damage by the actions of the man. The game company accuses the YouTube user, who goes by the alias Lord Nazo, of having sent large numbers of takedown requests via YouTube. He sent it on behalf of Bungie, invoking the American copyright law DMCA. Lord Nazo registered mail accounts called CSC, an intellectual property protection company that Bungie works with.

It involved a total of 96 takedown requests, addressed to YouTube creators targeting Destiny 2. The wave of summons from earlier this year caused outrage within the Destiny 2 community, mainly because most of them were clearly unjustified. Lord Nazo actively intervened in those discussions, according to the claim. Bungie hastened to report that the requests were not from the company and that the person responsible would be traced.

The alleged perpetrator made according to Forbes itself Destiny 2 videos. The lawsuit alleged that Lord Nazo used to put loops of Destiny 2 music on his channel and receive authentic takedown requests on behalf of Bungie and CSC. He refused to remove his videos, after which YouTube took his entire channel offline. Referring to the wave of takedown claims, which he himself had falsely filed, Lord Nazo tried to get YouTube to reactivate his channel.

Former friends of Lord Nazo are said to have described how the user explained on Discord the steps he took with the takedown requests and how easy it was to submit them to YouTube. Bungie speaks of a ‘loophole’ because YouTube does not verify that the requests come from the rightful party. Lord Nazo is also said to have sent threatening emails to CSC, with the message ‘Better start running. The clock is ticking’.