Bungie wins landmark lawsuit against player who harassed Destiny staff
https://www.polygon.com/23793493/bungie-destiny-2-harassment-lawsuit
Win empowers employers to protect employees from online harm
Bungie has won almost $500,000 in damages from a Destiny 2 player who harassed one of its community managers and his wife with abusive, racist, and distressing calls and messages, and sent an unsolicited pizza order to their home in a manner designed to intimidate and frighten the couple.
According to members of Bungie’s legal team, the judgment from a Washington state court sets important precedents that will empower employers to go after anyone who harasses their employees online, and strengthen the enforcement of laws against online trolling and harassment. “This one is special,” Bungie’s attorney Dylan Schmeyer tweeted.
As laid out in the court’s judgment, the defendant, Jesse James Comer, was “incensed” when the community manager — whom both Bungie and the court declined to name, to protect them from further harassment — spotlighted some fan art by a Black community member. Using anonymous phone numbers, Comer left a string of “hideous, bigoted” voicemails on the community manager’s personal phone, some asking that Bungie create options in Destiny 2 “in which only persons of color would be killed,” before proceeding to threaten the community manager’s wife with more racist voicemails and texts. Then he ordered a pizza to be delivered to their home, leaving instructions for the driver to knock at least five times, loudly, to make the intrusion as frightening as possible.
The court ruled that Comer was liable to pay over $489,000 in damages, fees, and expenses it had accrued in protecting and supporting its employees, investigating Comer, and prosecuting the case against him.
As laid out in a Twitter thread by Kathryn Tewson, a crusading paralegal who worked on the case, the judgment is significant because it recognizes that patterns of harassment escalate from online trolling to real-world violence; establishes that harassment of an employee for doing their job damages the employer as well, which can then use its resources to go after the culprit; and recognized a new tort — a legal term for a form of injury or harm for which courts can impose liability — around cyber and telephone harassment.
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The filing notes paint such a dark picture of behaviour. It's more than a little beyond the pale:
Sadly I don't think it's that far beyond these days. Getting the address is the unique thing here, but honestly I expect if it was easier to do that part we'd see nonsense like this more. It's a major cultural issue that we're regressing more and more towards a total lack of decency, and I think that's why we're seeing things like task forces for swatting.
The delivery thing was so messed up. Not just one life endangered, but two; and for what ? Luckily nobody ended up hurt there.
Good. Guy's a fuckhead and I hope he spends the rest of his life paying this shit off.
Hundred percent. The whole thing was legitimately psychopath shit.
I hope we see more psychopathic shitheads paying for their terrible behavior. Love to see results like this.
Happy to see this, honestly. It feels weird to praise a big company winning in court but fuck psychos like that who think they can hide behind anonymity and harass others.
When it's a win that protects people, not just the company, that's a win.
Yes, and I should have mentioned - good on Bungie for bothering to use their resources to stand up for their employee. Call me jaded but I wouldn’t expect that from most companies.