Bungie has filed a lawsuit over a series of copyright takedowns sent to YouTube streamers who had been trying to preserve music from the Destiny games. DMCA notifications were received by not only players who streamed parts of the game, but also Bungie, which looked into the matter after being served a copyright notice over its own intellectual properties.
We’re aware of a series of copyright takedowns on YouTube and we’re actively investigating. This includes content on our own Bungie channels.
— Bungie (@Bungie) March 20, 2022
These actions are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners. Please standby for future updates.
https://t.co/xPY1EzkgTh
Bungie learned that someone falsely represented one if its business partners, CSC, using a fake Gmail address, to issue the takedown requests. A lawsuit in Washington State against multiple John Does has since been filed over the DMCA notices. Bungie has criticized Google/YouTube over the automated process that allowed this and the difficulty in getting a response (three days of emails).
Bungie had to devote significant internal resources to addressing it and helping its players restore their videos and channels–an effort complicated by the fact that while YouTube has a form that allows anyone to claim to represent a copyright holder and issue copyright strikes, it has no dedicated mechanism for copyright holders who are being impersonated to let YouTube know about the DMCA fraud. As detailed below, this meant that Bungie had to work through several layers of YouTube contacts before it could adequately communicate and begin addressing the problem.
YouTube eventually took down the fake accounts responsible for the DMCA notices and restored the removed content. “If you’re looking to place blame, place it on YouTube for its sloppy copyright takedown system and Bungie for ignoring this issue for so long,” reads an email from “one of the people seemingly responsible for the rogue takedowns.”
Source: TorrentFreak (via Kotaku)
Discussion (5 replies)
Join Discussion →I like how the asshat who fraudulently filed the DMCA notices is blaming Youtube and Bungie. I'm sorry doucherocket you did the bad deed and it is YOUR fault and YOU will pay the price for it via this lawsuit. Enjoy
Copyright scammers are common on youtube, I've encountered them myself. They file DMCAs on the IP holder's behalf with no connection or permission from the actual IP holder. Then demand money for the DMCA to "go away".
I looked into who is filing the DMCA and emailed them their own name and that they obviously do not represent who they claim to. Of course the claim went away instantly.
I've also seen some youtuber fall for the scam and pay out a huge sum and his channel was still destroyed.
It's good that someone actually has the resources to take them to court and not just scare them away.
I totally agree. It's one thing to draw attention to a flawed process but quite another to draw in innocents and make them suffer.
the Italian television channel La7 included footage from the DLSS 5 reveal in a recent broadcast and has since copyrighted it. From there, essentially every video on YouTube with DLSS 5 trailer footage was issued a copyright strike and said to be in violation, with the videos taken down with the following message:
"Video unavailable: This video contains content from La7, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
This includes NVIDIA's official DLSS 5 announcement trailer, which had 2.3 million views before the supposed copyright strike. What makes this alarming is that the video was taken down with seemingly no human interaction or input, as it's clear that NVIDIA not only created DLSS 5, for better or worse, but also the trailer that has been a hot topic of discussion this year.
Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/1108...down-due-to-copyright-infringement/index.html
NVIDIA's DLSS 5 trailer has been taken down due to 'copyright' infringement
NVIDIA's DLSS 5 announcement trailer is currently offline on YouTube due to a copyright infringement claim from an unlikely source.
Kosta Andreadis
Senior Editor
Published Apr 5, 2026 9:02 PM CDT
TL;DR: NVIDIA's DLSS 5 trailer, praised for enhancing game visuals but criticized for character faces, was removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim by Italian channel La7. The automated takedown affected all related videos, including NVIDIA's official one, highlighting issues with YouTube's copyright enforcement system.
The system doesn't verify ownership. It verifies who uploaded first to the Content ID database. That's a completely different thing. Whoever registers the fingerprint first becomes the "rights holder" in YouTube's eyes, regardless of who actually made the content.
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many creators are complaining about YouTube’s use of AI technology. It is estimated that the platform terminated more than 12 million channels in 2025 due to violations of its terms of service, most of which have been flagged by AI. However, some of the affected creators complained that the reasons for the takedown are inaccurate or false positives. Some even said that their appeals were rejected within a few minutes of sending them, suggesting that the case did not even go under human review.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-i...ing-the-trailer-it-used-for-its-own-broadcast
This isn't even AI, it is the automated content id system that has been in place for many years. It's basically a "you're above the law" tool for broadcasters and studios. Any content submitted into the system is automatically blocked, however it does not give the affected channels a copyright strike as they know it is a gray area.