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Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, has filed a lawsuit against a 14-year-old boy who used cheating software for Fortnite Battle Royale and uploaded a video to YouTube showing others how to use it. The boy filed a DMCA counterclaim after Epic Games tried (successfully) to take down his video, and then uploaded a second video doubling down on the cheating (here is a third intact video from the YouTuber explaining the situation, 7m16s). The original video was ultimately removed and resulted in a "strike" against the YouTuber's account. The boy's mother has filed a letter with the Eastern District Court of North Carolina blasting the lawsuit and asking for it to be dismissed. She says that Epic Games failed to bind underage users with the EULA for their free-to-play game and claims that she did not give parental consent for her son to play the game. She also points out that the software in question is easily obtainable online and that her son did not modify the game with his own code:
Epic Games, the game developer of the massively popular Fortnite survival shooter, now finds itself at the center of a heated debate around the ethics of punishing cheaters after filing a lawsuit against a 14-year-old boy. In response, the boy's mother filed a legal note tearing down Epic's lawsuit and calling for it to be thrown out. The ensuing debate has been fierce, with some praising Epic and others decrying the legal measures as excessive and heartless, suggesting this case could become a touchstone for how game developers of highly competitive online titles handle cheaters and licensing agreement violations in the future.
[...] Epic, which has banned cheaters only to see them develop more robust workarounds, has responded by suing both distributors of the software and, now it seems, at least one user of it. Suing an individual user instead of simply banning them is an unorthodox and controversial move because it echoes the misguided actions of the music recording industry in its attempt to crackdown on piracy. That parallel was only further cemented by the note submitted by the 14-year-old's mother in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
[...] "This particular lawsuit arose as a result of the defendant filing a DMCA counterclaim to a takedown notice on a YouTube video that exposed and promoted Fortnite Battle Royale cheats and exploits," Epic told The Verge in a statement. "Under these circumstances, the law requires that we file suit or drop the claim. Epic is not okay with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age. As stated previously, we take cheating seriously, and we'll pursue all available options to make sure our games are fun, fair, and competitive for players."
Here's some analysis from a copyright attorney (10m53s, starts at 5m45s). He is not impressed with the mom's letter.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday November 30 2017, @01:23PM (26 children)
On the one hand, cheaters screw up games like this for everyone else.
On the other hand, young teens cheat, that's just life. Suing a 14yo is just begging for the Streisand Effect.
On the gripping hand, WTF is so hard about building some actual security into your multiplayer game?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by rigrig on Thursday November 30 2017, @01:48PM (8 children)
The fact that computers are way better at (some aspects of) video games: Either you have to take over players' computers to stop them from using an aimbot, or you ban them for "aiming too well".
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @02:09PM (7 children)
The worst part is when you're 14 and don't cheat, but get banned because your reflexes are too good so everyone else thinks you're cheating. Aka why I don't play fps anymore (also controllers suck and the multiplayer community is on consoles).
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 30 2017, @02:46PM
That happened with my brother, a hardcore gamer and a very, very good one at that. In college, he and his roommate, a hard core Quake III/Tribes/UT player who was in top tier clans, would play counterstrike and other FPS games together. Their problem? They were repeatedly banned from servers being accused of cheating. 99% of players were cannon fodder for their laser precision.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday November 30 2017, @03:12PM
The worst part is when you're 14 and don't cheat, but get banned because your reflexes are too good so everyone else thinks you're cheating. Aka why I don't play fps anymore (also controllers suck and the multiplayer community is on consoles).
Given how much of the population now play, there must be a reasonably large number of people in the same boat.
I used to work with a fellow who was considering turning professional. He could rarely play FPS without the people with more normal gaming reflexes getting angry and accusing him of using or even being a bot. I watched him play. He was simply that good. But that never stopped his other opponents from losing their tempers over getting beaten so badly.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:20PM (4 children)
I don't know if that's "the worst part" or not. How about, you get into a game, only to find that EVERYONE bots? So, you bot, just to keep up. But, you're the one who gets caught, and banned? To add insult to injury, one of the premier scripters is HIRED BY the game maker, because he apparently understood the game better than mods and administrators. So, suddenly the same person you once discussed the use of bots with, is suddenly banning everyone who bots. Talk about some crazy crap!! Meanwhile, most botting continues - the company bans a few each month, has a major sweep each year, but the most experienced botters still rank on the leaderboards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:53PM
I dunno, you just don't seem like an ex-navy midwest farm boy. Probably just a ton of troll accounts around here, apropos topic to find that out in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:52PM
but why play at all like that?
yeah people cheat, kids cheat. if everyones cheating that is a different league with a handicap, that is not cheating. pick another league.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @11:06PM (1 child)
The solution is to play for the fun of the game and not the need to have the highest score.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 01 2017, @02:09AM
That IS the best solution. Stop looking at the leaderboards, but even then, there is competitiveness among smaller groups of friends. You may never make it onto the leaderboards, which is fine, but you don't want to lag behind your friends. It's best to not even get involved in an online game that sends such conflicting signals to botters. However, you don't know all of this going in.
As the previous AC poster said - if everyone is doing it, then those are the rules. Consistent rules are what matters. Being caught with the inconsistencies will irritate anyone.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 30 2017, @02:38PM (6 children)
Mixed? Suing a child because he used cheat codes? What is wrong with you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:58PM (5 children)
Oh come off it, he did more then that.
He posted a video how to use not cheat codes, but cheating applications. Then when it was taken down he contested it. Not only that but he put up another how to video, and bragged about refusing to take them down.
With the counter DMCA EPIC has to either give up, or sue. The kid gave them no choice. Do you expect them to leave the how to cheat videos up? If cheating is widespread in the game, the game will only have cheaters, and EPIC wont make any money. Leaving the video up is just asking to take a hit in user numbers.
I hate people who reflexively take a side.
Frankly I hope that somehow they both get burned. The kid is a royal brat being enabled by his mother, and epic is sleazy as all get out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @07:26PM
And which part of DMCA trumps the 1st amendment?
Guess we now need a judge's help to find out.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 30 2017, @07:50PM (3 children)
After reading your post my only conclusion is you are a naive teen gamer. No other way to explain how you consider "video game" cheating to be as serious as you are making it out to be. In fact I'd say your tone implies that his actions were criminal which is laughably absurd. Turn off your PC or console, go outside and get a fucking job or at least a productive hobby.
Does free speech mean nothing to you?
Boo hoo. Fuck epic. They have no right to censor the speech of others because "muh moneyz". Besides, the cheaters are technical issues THEY need to fix. This is just sweeping the problem under the rug.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday November 30 2017, @08:55PM (2 children)
Fucking jobs may be illegal for underage in some jurisdictions.
Perhaps consider other type of jobs?
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday December 01 2017, @01:32AM (1 child)
That's why the hobby fall through case is there.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday December 01 2017, @03:48AM
Still not full proof.
Productive hobbies include the "fucking productive hobbies" as subcategory. If a "fucking job" is forbidden to underage, most of the time "fucking hobbies" are too.
The needed correction "or get a productive hobby that does not involve computer games or fucking".
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Thursday November 30 2017, @02:45PM (2 children)
Why not ask Equifax the same question... The answer is the same.
They all want cheap programmers over quality developers.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by arcz on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:29PM (1 child)
Unfortunately aimbots are about as good at pretending to be human as computers are are at detecting aimbots as long as the bot doesn't act obviously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @02:15PM
> Unfortunately aimbots are about as good at pretending to be human as computers >>are are at detecting aimbots as long as the bot doesn't act obviously.
Bot detected!
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:23PM
I've not known if modding survives commenting here.... I hope it does because you got +1 for me for the Niven and Pournelle reference.
Maybe Epic are simply Moties, and must be sealed off from the rest of the Internet for the protection of the Empire of IT.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:17PM (4 children)
Security is fine and all, but this is security through obscurity AND oppression. Reminds me of when the FBI picked up Dmitry Skylarov because he showed the Adobe's security was basically a wet paper napkin. A total abuse of power to defend code that could defend no one.
I'm all for security in multiplayer games, but that will only occur in a group setting where it is possible to somehow control other players computers. Some sort of distributed trusted code arrangement. Notably, the biggest problem is that you don't want your regular computer to be subject to such invasions of privacy and eliminations of your own security. I think we need dedicated hardware that could part of a cheat-less system.
This is bullshit. Take away the cheating aspect you have a problem with, and it's a 14 year old kid being punished because he figured out how to hack HIS SOFTWARE RUNNING ON HIS SYSTEM. Nobody has a right to involve themselves in your life after the point of sale. Epic has overreached here to a fantastic degree. They have no rights whatsoever to suppress information about the security of their software. None.
If you take away the gaming aspect of this, and replace it with document security, it's once again a private company trying to get government to scare and oppress people. Why? The Emperor Has No Clothes
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by arcz on Thursday November 30 2017, @11:28PM (3 children)
Problem is that his video contains copyrighted content.
I'm not sure whether or not the video itself could be infringing, but the software he used definitely is.
So let's recap:
1. The kid used clearly copyright infringing software. He didn't make the software, so not infringement? (some jurisdictions consider RAM copies as copying and therefore mere use of the software restricted by copyright, but that's silly and debatable...)
2. The kid made videos showing him cheating. Infringing? A copy but fair use. No direct infringement.
3. Teaching other people how to cheat in the game. Induced copyright infringement. (and vocarious infringement.)
IANAL
(Score: 4, Disagree) by edIII on Friday December 01 2017, @01:06AM (2 children)
Only way it is illegal is if the authors of the cheating program are distributing large parts of the game code to do it. In most cases this isn't true. Not for simple cheating programs.
Some people just need to fuck right off when it comes to controlling other people's quiet and legal enjoyment of their property.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by arcz on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:27PM (1 child)
Like I said, "induced infringement". If you teach others how to cheat in the game, then you are inducing them to cause copyright infringement, which can itself result in liability. It's a type of indirect infringement. (where you aren't infringing yourself but can be found liable anyway.)
It's also debatable whether making a cheating video is fair use of copyrighted content. I think it might not be, but I can't say for sure.
I'm friends with one of the lawyers at the firm that filed this suit (Parker Poe), though he's not on this particular case. They're pretty well known and I doubt they'd file a case that presents an obvious loss. While I can understand your opinion, and to some degree agree with it, I recognize that the way I think copyright should work is quite different from the way it actually does. I fully expect the kid to lose.
IANAL
(Score: 1, Redundant) by arcz on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:34PM
(I would think the better approach would be the computer fraud and abuse act, since you could say that access to the network using a cheat client is unauthorized, but that's just my opinion I guess.)
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday November 30 2017, @11:22PM
Just because you don't like cheaters doesn't mean that anything done in the name of stopping them is alright. The ends don't justify the means. If the owners of the servers want to ban them, then so be it, but that should be the extent of it. I'm not sure what copyright claims they could possibly have, but they are nonsense regardless of what courts or lawyers say. The DMCA is similarly garbage.