At least one of Bungie's ongoing legal troubles has been put to rest, as the company settles a copyright lawsuit it was facing against author Matthew Kelsey Martineau, who alleged Bungie had pulled storylines for its Red War campaign in Destiny 2 and the Red Legion from his work published on WordPress between 2013 and 2014.
Martineau sued Bungie last year for the alleged copyright infringement, and you'd be forgiven if you thought this would have been a simple case for Bungie to dismiss. In its motion to dismiss, Bungie refuted Martineau's claim, saying he "failed to plausibly allege that Bungie copied constituent elements of Plaintiff's work that are original, and, specifically, that the Complaint fails to plausibly allege factual copying by Bungie and that the works incorporated by reference into the Complaint are not substantially similar as a matter of law."
However, to Bungie's chagrin, Judge Susie Morgan did not dismiss the case. Bungie was unable to demonstrate direct examples from the Destiny 2 Red War campaign to prove its argument, because that content has since been vaulted. Not only is it no longer available to the public, but it's no longer compatible with the current foundation of Destiny 2.
To make that content available would be a mountain of an engineering effort, so when Bungie tried instead to resort to YouTube videos of old Destiny 2 gameplay footage and Destiny 2 wiki content, Judge Morgan disallowed it as evidence. "While Plaintiff does reference Destiny 2 in his complaint, he does not reference the YouTube videos containing Destiny 2 game footage, the Destinypedia pages, or the Tyson declaration," Judge Morgan wrote at the time.
So Bungie's dismissal attempt failed, and the case entered an extended discovery process, which allowed Martineau to further expand his arguments and, eventually, as reported by The Game Post, reach a settlement.
"A settlement conference was conducted on this date before the undersigned Magistrate Judge," the new filing reads. "Negotiations were successful and resulted in the settlement of all claims. The Court thanks counsel and the parties for their efforts in bringing this matter to an amicable resolution."
The public settlement filing doesn't include details on what the conditions of the agreement were, if Martineau was awarded a monetary sum or if a deal was reached another way, but as far as the court is concerned, this is a closed case so long as the settlement terms are met by both parties and agreed upon for the next 60 days, which is the period of time given in case either side wants to open the case back up.
At least this is one less thing for Bungie to worry about now, as it continues trying to pick itself up amidst Destiny 2 reportedly selling very poorly.
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