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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: 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.)