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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, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 30 2017, @03:00PM (1 child)
LOL! No chance one or more players were in the same room on different machines? I remember playing CS with my brother in the "computer room" where we had both of our PC's. Once killed, you were allowed to flip through the other players cameras or even free fly around the map in "ghost" mode waiting for the round to end. Playing the map: dust, and two players are left standing, my brother and a player on the opposite team. 5 minutes left in the round and the map was changing in 10 and everyones loves dust so one more round! So I'm watching the two walk around in a loop always out of each other's view. I'm cracking up because the two kept moving around looking for one another but never bumped into each other. The round is ending and he turns around and is like: "dude, where the fuck is this ass hole so I can end this damn round already." He sees where the dude is hiding on my screen, makes a b line for him and mows him down. Guy was flipping shit claiming he was wall hacking so my brother joking tells him "I heard you crouching". Everyone laughed and no one cared. Cheating? YUP! Did we do it often? Not really. But it was inevitable when we played together because all you had to do was turn your head 90 degrees to see each others screens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @11:03AM
If the game provides a way to see where you got killed from, relaying that information to your team is not cheating. It's a deliberate part of the game design.
Joining the game as a spectator, that's more of a gray area, but again, those who made the game decided you should have the option.