Destiny 2 cheat maker AimJunkies has faced a major setback in its battle against Bungie today, as a Seattle federal court has dismissed its counterclaim against the developer.
AimJunkies filed the counterclaim back in September, a response to Bungie's copyright infringement lawsuit. The cheat maker accused Bungie of hacking, claiming that it combed through key member James May's computer "on several occasions" across two years to build its copyright infringement case. The counterclaim also accused Bungie of "unauthorised and clandestine surveillance of private records" on May's PC, calling it "intentional, malicious and willful."
The counterclaim appeared rather strong at the time, aided by the fact that the court had previously dismissed Bungie's initial infringement complaint against both AimJunkies and its parent company Phoenix Digital. But now, as TorrentFreak reports, the court has sided with the Destiny developer on this occasion.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly says it mostly comes down to a lack of evidence on May and Phoenix Digital's parts. "May has failed to sufficiently allege that Bungie accessed his personal computer and files without authorisation. To support his allegation that Bungie accessed his personal computer, May relies on a document that Bungie purportedly produced during discovery in this matter."
The document continues: "May, however, does not explain what this document is or how it evidences instances in which Bungie allegedly accessed his computer without authorization and downloaded his personal information."
The counterclaim also accused Bungie of circumventing Phoenix Digital's terms of service by reverse-engineering its software. This too was dismissed, with Zilly stating "Neither May nor Phoenix Digital allege that Bungie accessed any copyrighted work," adding "Phoenix Digital has not pleaded any facts to support that its 'loader software' was protected by a technological measure."
May and Phoenix Digital now have until November 21 to amend their claims, similar to how Bungie was offered time to amend its initially dismissed copyright infringement complaint. Whether either party will take another stab at it is unknown, but Bungie will then have until December 8 to respond if so.
