Epic Games Sues Youtuber; Copyright Infringement and Selling Hacks for Fortnite

[Speed Weed]

 

Sources:

1) https://torrentfreak.com/epic-games-sues-youtuber-golden-modz-over-magical-fortnite-powers-181012/

2) https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/27/16707562/epic-games-fortnite-cheating-lawsuit-debate-14-year-old-kid

 

Quote from the first source

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'Golden Modz' ranks among the more popular gaming YouTubers. In his videos, he often showcases GTA 5 and Fortnite cheats, referring to them as 'magical powers,' which are sold on a linked website. This type of magic is not what Epic Games wants to see and this week they sued Golden Modz and another alleged cheater for copyright infringement.

This week Epic Games continued its efforts by suing a rather prominent target, Golden Modz, who they’ve identified as Brandon Lucas. With more than 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube, he is the most high profile target we’ve seen thus far.

The complaint, filed at a North Carolina Federal Court, accuses ‘Golden Modz’ of copyright infringement and also names Colton Conter, a.k.a. ‘Exentric,’ as a second defendant.
“This is a copyright infringement, breach of contract, and tortious interference case in which the Defendants are infringing Epic’s copyrights by injecting unauthorized cheat software (‘cheats’ or ‘hacks’) into the copyright protected code of Epic’s popular video game Fortnite®,” Epic Games writes.

Both defendants have displayed their use of cheats in various YouTube videos. By using these cheats, they inject code into the game which modifies the original, which is a clear violation of copyright law, according to Epic Games.

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Well, this 14 years old boy surely got into a big trouble this time, and the boy's mom will defend him to the end. I understand Epic Games have to do this in order to get rid of cheaters to maintain their profit and reputation because if there are too many cheaters in the game, they will lose players, and losing players mean they will not going to get any money. Epic Games is not the only video game company take cheater to the court. 

[PineyCreek]

...why are you posting a story from Nov. 2017?

[desertcomputer]

Who pays GTA 5 mods? They are free mods which works and haven't be detected by rock-star because the fact they anti cheat is shit. You can use cheat engine to cheat/speed up shit on GTA online and this can be found on forums(200 000 + unique downloads). You just need to know where to look.

[Rune]

Screw both of them. Cheaters suck and distributors suck even more.

[mr moose]

Judge has granted epic the right to sue caleb.  Caleb also has a second youtube channel that he was boasting about putting all his cheat videos on.

 

Sounds like he is just as spoilt little shit who doesn't care about the consequences of his actions.

 

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article216246680.html

[trag1c]

God damn thats what hacks are going for now.....expensive as hell. I used to sell VIP's for shitty pay to win Nexon games for 15USD a month to guys...(Before anyone bitches they changed their sales model to pay to win so my self and many others decided to give better cheats that what you can buy with real world currency from the game store.)

[ignaloidas]

I find the reason they give for suing stupid, it may very well be just a separate program that does not inject any code into fortnite, or not any more than simple overlays. Just if this is true, their whole argument falls apart.

[mr moose]

2 hours ago, ignaloidas said:

I find the reason they give for suing stupid, it may very well be just a separate program that does not inject any code into fortnite, or not any more than simple overlays. Just if this is true, their whole argument falls apart.

Their argument is two fold, 1 is the claim of copyright infringement the other is breaking the contract that says you will not use software to effect the usage of the game, ergo no cheats. 

 

with regard to 1.  they only have to prove the cheats he is selling or linking to could only be made with access to the game code.  Also with regard to IP and CR, they may only have to prove that the software he is selling/linking to alters the way in which the game is operated, effecting the user experience of everyone else in favor of the people who paid for the cheats.

 

How the court actually rules will be interesting, but I think it will be a half win for Epic,  it will be hard to argue that the cheats do not effect the play of the game thus effect the user base which has a direct effect on revenue.  This will be the cost used to calculate financial damages.   So even if they don;t win on the "he used out CR material" complaint, they will likely win the "his cheats have cost us revenue".   In fact Caleb has already lost the right to be indemnified from the EULA on grounds that in that state you cannot be immune to clauses in a contract whilst enjoying the benefits of that contract regardless of age.

 

Yes, this lad is in hot water, and regardless if he wins or not it is going to be costly for them, I hope his deluded parents have enough money to cover the costs of their failures as parents. Because if he wins this case the next one is going to be of much higher stakes.

[Commodus]

This big-name YouTuber lawsuit is new, folks -- the Verge link is an old one for context, I believe.

 

At any rate, good... it's bad enough if you develop cheats, it's another if you sell cheats and use your YouTube popularity to profit from them.  It's people like this who foster a toxic gaming environment.  I hope they can reach an out-of-court settlement, but they do need to be stopped one way or another.

[Gullerback]

I don't have much sympathy tbh, Company's let these guys get away with murder imo,  Anti-cheat isn't good enough anymore

[Aetheria]

47 minutes ago, Commodus said:

It's people like this who foster a toxic gaming environment.

Yeah, I'm sure the goldrush to turn gaming in to hyper-competitive 'esports' had nothing to do with that.

 

Meanwhile, it's the dev's responsibility to secure their damned game. Ban the cheaters, patch the flaws in your game. Unless the cheat authors are distributing Epic code or assets, the copyright angle seems like a stretch, and trying to enforce EULAs is laughable. This reeks of laziness and opportunism.

[Commodus]

Just now, Aetheria said:

Yeah, I'm sure the goldrush to turn gaming in to hyper-competitive 'esports' had nothing to do with that.

 

Meanwhile, it's the dev's responsibility to secure their damned game. Ban the cheaters, patch the flaws in your game. Unless the cheat authors are distributing Epic code or assets, the copyright angle seems like a stretch, and trying to enforce EULAs is laughable. This reeks of laziness and opportunism.

Cheaters don't participate in esports.  If they try, they either get caught cheating (they're being broadcast when they play in competitive matches) or they fail because they don't know how to play honestly.  These cheaters are there either because they want to win regular public matches at all costs, they enjoy griefing, or they want to earn in-game perks as quickly as possible.

 

Besides... if you hadn't noticed, anti-cheating isn't an either/or practice.  Epic can simultaneously sue cheaters (which it should) and secure its game (which it is).  It literally just acquired an anti-cheat company.  And you're acting as if there will be some magical moment at which it will have patched the game to the point where cheating is virtually impossible.  Sorry, but software security is typically an endless race.  You can make it harder to cheat, but you're never going to completely stop it -- deterring cheaters by making it unprofitable is another solution that can help.

[Aetheria]

5 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Cheaters don't participate in esports.

No... I'm actually impressed by how well people can miss a point. Online gaming is a toxic shithole regardless of hackers and script kiddies. It is a toxic shithole in-part because the 'competitive' artifice encourages shitty playstyles and shitty people. It's not an accident that online games are now full of nasty little 4chan memelords fretting of their ranking, KDR, and streaming everything to twitch; milking them is now a huge revenue stream. They've attached a freaking generator to trolls and brats.

 

12 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Besides... if you hadn't noticed, anti-cheating isn't an either/or practice.

Not according to these articles. Epic are either doing their job well, or hacking is a widespread problem. Few companies are in a better position to track and patch this stuff.

 

20 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Epic can simultaneously sue cheaters (which it should)

Absolutely not, it's a fucking videogame. Cheaters are shitbirds, and I know we live in an increasingly absurd world, but lets keep a little perspective.