When cheaters get reported or caught, they are usually permanently banned from the game or even from certain game services like Steam. Epic Games is taking is one step further though, as they are suing two cheaters using cheating software in their multiplayer title, Fortnite. The reason, stated in the court documents posted by Polygon, is copyright infringement.
It appears that the two people being sued were both using a subscription-based cheating service, AddictCheats.net. Additionally, the two offenders are being sued personally instead of the two cases being civil litigation. This is a bit unusual for a copyright infringement case.
Polygon states this isn’t the first case companies have sued cheaters for copyright infringment, stating that “[c]ompanies like Blizzard Entertainment have been successful in the past using copyright infringement as the basis of suits against cheating services.”
Here’s a bit more specific information on the lawsuits:
Epic’s lawsuit says that Vraspir is himself a cheater, and through building the software sold through AddictedCheats.net, enabled others to cheat as well. He has been banned from playing Fortnite at least nine times, according to court documents.
Court documents specifically call out Broom for modifying AddictedCheats.net software “so that it is specifically designed to circumvent Epic’s technological measures and instructed subscribers to the cheat provider website to do the same.”
For the time being, the cheating software for Fortnite has been removed from AddictCheats.net due to legal issues.
We will keep you informed as more information on the lawsuit becomes available.
[Source: Polygon]
