Destiny 2 News Roundup – Trials Freelance and DMCA Lawsuit

Bungie was back this week with their This Week At Bungie update going over all the latest news in Destiny 2 including Trials Freelance this weekend, plus a new hotfix coming next week to fix some bugs. Also, Bungie update us on the DMCA Lawsuit they are filing against a YouTuber, plus I’ve got some follow up info on that from Polygon.

Let’s dive into it.

Trials of Osiris: Freelance is Back

The first Freelance Trials of Osiris weekend for Season of the Haunted is on the way, which means more opportunities to check out the ultra-competitive PvP mode for any that are curious about what it has to offer. Whether you’re playing for engrams or playing for that coveted Lighthouse spot, you’ll have another shot at both later this week.

We’ve taken in a lot of feedback about the Trials experience and because of that, we’ve learned some important lessons about the player base most involved with competitive experiences like this. We want you to enjoy your time in Saint-14’s arena of PvP goodness. We’ll keep taking in that feedback but for now, enjoy Freelance and go make Saint smile. He needs it.

Takedown Update

In a previous TWAB, we let everyone know that a series of copyright takedown issues on YouTube had been identified as being fraudulent by someone impersonating our intellectual property protection service. We wanted to give a brief update and let everyone affected know that we have identified the individual responsible and we are taking legal action.

We take these matters seriously and will invest the time and resources required to protect our community from malicious actors.

That said, do not attempt to harass, attack, or pile onto this individual. Any direct outreach not by Bungie’s legal team could impair our ability to address the harm done to our community, which is our priority. We have your backs on this and will make sure this individual meets with the future they deserve. Much though we appreciate the sentiment, we aren’t asking for your help in making that happen.

Now that this person has been identified, it has removed some challenges we faced in reviewing license requests for archived music uploads. If you have been waiting for these, thank you for your patience, and we hope to get back to you in the next few weeks.

Bungie hits YouTuber with a $7.6 million lawsuit for fake DMCA claims

By Owen S. Good, Polygon

Bungie is suing a Destiny 2 YouTuber who allegedly struck back at DMCA takedowns leveled on his account by filing false DMCA claims, on Bungie’s behalf, against other streamers and the studio itself. Bungie’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Wednesday, seeks at least $7.6 million in damages.

The complaint alleges that Nicholas Minor, who broadcasted under the handle Lord Nazo, created two fake Gmail addresses impersonating staff of CSC Global, a copyright management firm representing Bungie. The lawsuit says Lord Nazo used those addresses in February to send YouTube 96 takedown demands, citing the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The takedowns involved videos posted by YouTubers My Name is Byf (who has 974,000 subscribers); Aztecross (615,000 subscribers) and Bungie’s own YouTube account. “Minor’s attack sent shockwaves through the Destiny community,” the complaint said. “Content creators described the chilling effect the false takedowns had on their own work, saying, ‘I’m scared to make new Destiny videos, let alone keep the ones I’ve already made up.’”

Under the DMCA, companies such as YouTube are obligated to remove user-published content that infringes a copyright held by another. Such a broad mandate has enabled abuse of the statute’s provisions, with some filing DMCA declarations to YouTube and elsewhere to thwart business rivals or social media adversaries.

Bungie’s complaint alleges that Minor “exploit[ed] the hole in YouTube’s DMCA-process security that allows anyone at all to claim to be representing a rights holder for purposes of issuing a takedown, with no real safeguards against fraud.”

Bungie said Minor mounted his retaliatory campaign after he himself was served with DMCA takedown demands in December 2021, related to uploading the original soundtrack for 2015’s Destiny: The Taken King. “Ninety-six times, Minor sent DMCA takedown notices […] 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,” the complaint says. “This caused Bungie significant reputational and economic damage, for obvious reasons.”

In March, Bungie alerted fans via Twitter that it was aware of the copyright takedown demands and said they “are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners.” The complaint quotes a “Manifesto” from Minor, also sent that month to the Destiny community, in which he admits to the false takedowns.

“The Manifesto reads like a hackneyed ‘look what you made me do letter’ from the serial killer in a bad novel,” Bungie’s lawyers wrote.

The lawsuit is filed in the Western District of Washington state, where Bungie’s headquarters are located. In the complaint, Bungie notes that it “permits players to create videos using Destiny gameplay” and upload them to YouTube and other services that monetize the content. But the studio does reserve its intellectual property rights, and the right to enforce them, in cases where the spirit of its user-created content guidelines are violated. Minor’s wholesale uploading of The Taken King’s OST violated those guidelines, the complaint says.

The suit seeks at least $7.6 million, or $150,000 for each of 51 instances in which Minor allegedly infringed Bungie’s registered copyrights in issuing the false takedown demands. Other parts of the suit seek unspecified actual and statutory damages, “to demonstrate that serious consequences await anyone else foolish enough to […] target Bungie’s community for attack.”

Player Support Report

HOTFIX 4.1.0.4

Next Tuesday, June 28, Destiny 2 Hotfix 4.1.0.4 will be released. View our Destiny Server and Update Status page for maintenance times, as well as the timeline below:
9 AM PDT (1600 UTC): Destiny 1 and 2 maintenance begins.
9:15 AM (1615 UTC): Destiny 1 and 2 are brought offline.
10 AM (1700 UTC): Destiny 2 Hotfix 4.1.0.4 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions.
2 PM (2100 UTC): Destiny 1 and 2 maintenance completes.

Regarding what is targeted to be fixed for this update cycle:

• Fixing an issue where players could shoot through Barricades, Ward of Dawn, and thin walls when Piercing Sidearms artifact mod and the Armor-Piercing Rounds weapon mods are equipped.
• Piercing Sidearms artifact mod will be re-enabled.
• Fixing an issue where the Crucible Vermilion shader effects caused unintended photosensitivity issues.
• Investigating special effects in Nightmare Containment activities that caused unintended photosensitivity concerns.
• Fixing an issue where Wings of Sacred Dawn did not offer proposed airborne effectiveness buff.
• Fixing an issue where Peregrine Greaves did not offer proposed airborne effectiveness buff.
• Fixing an issue where Peacekeepers did not offer proposed airborne effectiveness buff.
• Fixing an issue where Master Vault of Glass raid did not have all Challenges active when available through the new raid and dungeon rotator.

KNOWN ISSUES

• The pattern for crafting Nezarec’s Whisper cannot be untracked.
• Defeating targets while Radiant with the Knock ’em Down is not refunding melee energy when used with Caliban’s Hand.
• Calus Mini-Tool and Drang (Baroque) don’t update to gold Masterwork borders after upgrading to two Enhanced traits.
• The Empty Grief Seasonal Challenge will not be completed if a player picks up the scythe that spawns in the final encounter, or use of weapon traits that cause explosions, such as Dragonfly. Players should complete the encounter with their equipped weapons to complete the Challenge.