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Bungie Wins $6.7M Default Judgment Against Destiny 2 Cheat Maker Kunal Bansal

A federal court entered a $6,700,973.34 default judgment for Bungie against Destiny 2 cheat seller Kunal Bansal on May 8, 2023, along with a permanent injunction.
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Bungie won a default judgment of $6,700,973.34 against Kunal Bansal, the operator of the cheat business LaviCheats, in a federal case in Seattle. Judge Tana Lin of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington entered the order on May 8, 2023, in Bungie Inc. v. Bansal, case 2:21-cv-01111-TL. The court also entered a permanent injunction against Bansal. Because Bansal did not appear to defend the case, this was not a jury verdict or a contested trial ruling.

What the court awarded

The total is the sum of four components. The order breaks the award down as follows:

Component Amount Basis stated in the order
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) damages $5,580,000 $2,000 for each of 2,790 cheat downloads
Copyright statutory damages $300,000 Statutory copyright damages
Lanham Act damages $579,270 Calculation method not stated in the court summary available for this article
Attorney fees and costs $241,703.34 Fees and costs combined
Total judgment $6,700,973.34 Entered as the total award

The DMCA figure is the largest part of the award and follows directly from the download count: 2,790 multiplied by $2,000 equals $5,580,000. The other components rest on separate legal theories, so the judgment is not a single lump-sum penalty for cheating.

Default judgment, not a trial verdict

A default judgment is entered when a defendant fails to respond or appear. The court accepts the plaintiff’s well-pleaded allegations as established for the claims it decides, and then sets the remedy. That is what happened here: Bansal did not appear, and the court entered default judgment on all claims except two, the Washington Consumer Protection Act claim and the unjust-enrichment claim. Those two claims were not part of the default award.

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That distinction matters when the figure is repeated in headlines. The $6.7 million is a judgment on the claims the court allowed in default. It is not a finding on the excepted claims, and it did not result from a contested hearing on the evidence.

Who the defendant is

Contemporaneous reporting identifies Bansal as the operator of LaviCheats, a company that marketed subscription-based hacks for multiplayer games, and says Bungie filed the federal action in Seattle in 2021. The reporting also says Bansal did not respond to the claims. For the terms of the award and injunction, the court order is the controlling source; the reporting supplies the background on the business.

What the injunction covers

The permanent injunction is limited to specified conduct connected to Destiny 2 cheat software. It binds:

  • Bansal himself;
  • persons acting under his direction or control; and
  • persons in active concert or participation with him who receive notice of the order.

The covered conduct includes creating, distributing, marketing, reselling, promoting, selling, processing payments for, possessing, or using the covered software. The order also requires steps to disable or remove specified social accounts, and to transfer, destroy, disable, or remove the covered software.

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The injunction applies to the named defendant and the covered software. It is not a ruling against all cheat makers or against gaming software in general.

What the judge wrote

The order’s conclusion states: “The Court finds that default judgment is appropriately entered in Bungie’s favor as to all but the CPA and unjust enrichment claims.” It then provides: “The total award shall be entered in the amount of $6,700,973.34.” Both sentences are from Judge Tana Lin’s order dated May 8, 2023.

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Current status

This article is based on the May 8, 2023 order and the contemporaneous reporting. Later filings, such as any appeal, post-judgment motions, or efforts to collect the award, are not covered here. To confirm the case’s current posture, check the PACER docket for case 2:21-cv-01111-TL in the Western District of Washington.

Taken together, the ruling is a default judgment that combines a large statutory DMCA award, copyright and Lanham Act damages, fees, and an injunction limited to Bansal, those acting with him, and the Destiny 2 cheat software at issue.

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