In a bid to identify individuals allegedly involved in creating and distributing cheats for the video game Destiny 2, Bungie has subpoenaed the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. The subpoena seeks to identify the owner of a Bitcoin wallet, who is believed to be a European resident. This individual, however, is contesting the subpoena, claiming it violates EU privacy laws and other regulations.
I mean, “game cheats” might be an understatement. Bungie runs an online service, and Ring-1 is creating and selling millions of dollars worth of exploits that allow users to cheat at a game that includes financial transactions and competitive play, by exploiting the servers that run the game.
Successfully attacking their online service, while indicative of Bungie running an insecure service, would be considered a form of cybercrime, as compared to simply exploiting the game code on your machine. You can’t legally make and sell hacking tools that exploit online services.
And cheating at competitive play with real-world stakes is fraud.
I mean not the first time they’ve sued over cheats, and they very much took a sweeping victory last time.
I’d expect the same DMCA circumvention provision along with the always fun “Well, literally everything you did is also a CFAA violation so maybe you want to settle now before we try to get you extradited to the US on federal felony charges” threat would result in pretty much the same outcome here.
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