lord nazo – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Bungie, YouTuber Settle Lawsuit Over Fraudulent DMCA Takedowns For YouTube Videos

from the takedown-shakedown dept

Almost exactly two years ago, we discussed a strange story in which video game publisher Bungie sued a bunch of John Does specifically for inputting fraudulent DMCA takedown claims on YouTube videos that contained Bungie content. Those notices purported to be from Bungie in some cases, but even Bungie’s own YouTube channel was hit by some of them as well. Later on, Bungie unmasked one of the Does as YouTuber Lord Nazo, real name Nicholas Minor, as one of the perpetrators of these takedown notices. In those discussions, we mentioned that while Bungie will come out looking like the good guy here if its claims were correct, the real story here is just how wide open for abuse YouTube’s DMCA takedown process is.

Well, it was recently announced that Bungie and Minor settled the lawsuit and Minor revealed why he had done all of this.

In a dramatic turn of events, the legal battle between gaming giant Bungie Inc. and online gamer Nicholas Minor, famously known as Lord Nazo, has reached a surprising conclusion. After accusations of false copyright infringement, the two parties have finally settled, bringing an end to the intense courtroom drama that has captivated the gaming community.

During the legal proceedings, Minor admitted to creating a phony email address and submitting the video removal requests. His actions were reportedly motivated by a desire to highlight the lack of transparency in YouTube’s takedown process, following the removal of one of his own videos. This revelation added a layer of complexity to the case, shedding light on the broader issues surrounding online content moderation.

Minor’s actions can’t be justified by this motivation, of course, but it’s hard to argue he didn’t effectively make his point with all of this. Sure, he got caught and ostensibly is going to suffer some measure of punishment for his actions, but that’s because Bungie was his target and Bungie has the resources to force this sort of action. Think about all the other individual or smaller entities out there that suffer from these same fraudulent-type actions that don’t have the resources to fight back, or don’t want to bother doing so. In those cases the bad actors get away with their bad actions and none of us ever even hear about it.

Even for those larger entities, navigating all of this isn’t easy.

Bungie’s lawsuit underscored the challenges faced by content creators and gaming companies in navigating the intricacies of copyright law and online platforms’ policies. The false infringement complaints not only disrupted Bungie’s community of online gamers but also prompted a reevaluation of YouTube’s takedown procedures. The resolution of this case may set a precedent for future disputes involving copyright infringement and online content moderation.

And to its credit, Bungie said at the start of its legal action that YouTube’s DMCA process doesn’t sufficiently protect for this kind of fraudulent behavior. I have yet to hear of any massive changes made by YouTube as a result of this instance and others like it.

So for today, the status quo remains. But it certainly shouldn’t long term.

Filed Under: copyfraud, copyright, dmca, lord nazo, nicholas minor
Companies: bungie, youtube

Bungie Unmasks One Of The ‘Does’ It Sued For Fraudulent YouTube Takedowns

from the oops dept

Back in March of this year, we discussed a somewhat odd story involving a bunch of DMCA takedowns for YouTube videos that included fan-content mixed with Destiny 2 music or footage. DMCA takedowns aren’t themselves strange, but in this case the makers of the game, Bungie Inc., publicly stated that it was aware of the takedowns but insisted it wasn’t them or their enforcement partner, CSC. Some of Bungie’s own official content had also been hit with claims, bolstering its defense somewhat, though it certainly isn’t unheard of for official content to accidentally get DMCA’d. Further solidifying that this wasn’t actually Bungie or CSC, however, occurred when Bungie went ahead and filed a lawsuit against 10 John Does over all of this.

Well, at least one of those Does has now been unmasked, as YouTube assisted Bungie by providing his IP address. That would be Nicholas Minor, who goes as Lord Nazo on YouTube. Bungie has amended its lawsuit naming him specifically, though it is unclear if Bungie is accusing Minor of filing all of the fraudulent takedowns. Ironically, it appears that Minor took these actions after becoming angry that Bungie and CSC took down his YouTube videos that contained Destiny 2 game music.

Lord Nazo, real name Nicholas Minor, apparently sought revenge on the development studio after CSC Global, which works in conjunction with Bungie as a brand protector, issued a number of takedown notices to him for uploading the Destiny soundtracks to his channel. The videos were uploaded in December 2021, and removed by YouTube a month later.

As reported by The Game Post, Minor allegedly created two fake Gmail accounts under the pseudonyms Jeremy Wiland and Damien Reynolds, posing as employees of CSC. He then used the accounts to issue DMCA strikes against popular Destiny YouTubers such as My Name Is Byf and Promethean, and additionally against Bungie’s own YouTube channel.

More is alleged, including that Minor used those accounts to contact Bungie directly and threaten them somewhat vaguely. For its part, Bungie is asking for a whopping $7.6 million as a result of all of this. Based on the filing for the suit, Bungie looks like it knows what it’s talking about.

Now let’s discuss briefly how this will all get talked about. If Minor did what the complaint alleges, he’s likely to be in a heap of trouble. Bungie will look like a hero here, helped by the fact that its own stance on fan-created videos is fairly lenient.

But what few will talk about is a point that Bungie actually made at the outset of all of this: YouTube’s DMCA takedown process sucks and is absolutely begging to be abused. Minor may have been found out, assuming the complaint is correct, but how many times does that not happen? How many times, in the name of promiscuous enforcement of copyrights, have such fraudulent claims at a lower level never been given this attention? We see this all the time and nobody seems to want to do anything about it.

That’s the real problem here. A broken enforcement system that is ripe for abuse.

Filed Under: content id, copyright, copyright abuse, dmca, false takedowns, lord nazo, nicholas minor
Companies: bungie, youtube