Oh, how the tables have turned. Bungie — the studio behind Future 2 and, initially, Halo — has gone to conflict with cheaters and trolls over the previous two years, now it finds itself sued by considered one of its targets. They usually allege Bungie did, kind of, what it accuses them of doing.
AimJunkies, a cheat producer that has tussled with Bungie in court docket for greater than a yr, alleges that Bungie “hacked” a developer’s pc for data on the cheat makers. The declare is available in a countersuit filed final week in federal court docket in Washington state (first reported by TorrentFreak).
Within the authentic lawsuit, Bungie alleged AimJunkies infringed Future 2’s copyrights by creating cheats for the live-service shooter. In Might, AimJunkies responded that dishonest isn’t breaking the legislation, and disputed that Bungie’s copyright declare was related. A choose agreed, however did give Bungie an opportunity to revise its argument. Bungie’s amended criticism, filed in Might, revealed extra data, and named further cheat builders — particularly one named James Might.
Seizing on this revelation, AimJunkies’ reply to Bungie’s declare says that Bungie really hacked Might. After introducing the BattlEye anti-cheat system final August, Bungie amended its Restricted Software program License Settlement (LSLA) to permit the studio to entry gamers’ computer systems for the software program. Nonetheless, AimJunkies’ countersuit alleges that Bungie accessed James Might’s pc previous to that replace to the sport’s LSLA.
AimJunkies is now saying Bungie violated the Laptop Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, and “hacked” Might’s pc a number of occasions from 2019 till the studio carried out the LSLA adjustments in 2021. The counterclaim alleges that Bungie used Might’s PC to assemble data on AimJunkies’ colleagues. In 2022, Bungie might have accessed that data from Might if he had logged into Future 2 and agreed to the brand new LSLA, as all gamers should do.
AimJunkies, its firm Phoenix Digital, and Might are looking for unspecified damages with their counterclaim.
It’s all a part of an ongoing and multi-layered authorized battle, and it’s fairly complicated, with a number of accusations being thrown throughout the desk. It’s additionally unclear how sound AimJunkies’ authorized technique is right here. However it certain is novel, and it places strain on Bungie, who has been the only real aggressor all through this and different instances to date. Whether or not the choose finds AimJunkies’ accusation compelling is one other query.
