, Bungie has won its lawsuit against cheat maker Phoenix Digital . The first of its kind jury trial rewarded $63,210 in damages to Bungie—a rounding error for a company of this size—but it more importantly sets a new legal precedent supporting game studios looking to sue cheat makers—or, more worryingly, anyone who violates a company's copyright by modifying its games.
Typically, cheat manufacturers have immediately folded in the face of legal pressure like this, but as reported in Totilo's newsletter,, AimJunkies/Phoenix Digital counter-sued Bungie, alleging that the developer illegally accessed one of the cheat maker's computers. Notably, cheating in a videogame is not illegal: the legal basis for suing cheat makers rests on the argument that reverse engineering a game to produce cheats violates a developer's copyright.