Blizzard Sues Overwatch 'Cheat' Maker For Copyright Infringement (torrentfreak.com)

From a TorrentFreak report: Blizzard Entertainment is suing Bossland, the maker of the popular Overwatch cheat tool "Watchover Tyrant" and several other game cheats. Among other things, the developer accuses the German company of various forms of copyright infringement and unfair competition. Blizzard is not happy with the Overwatch cheat and has filed a lawsuit against the German maker, Bossland GMBH, at a federal court in California. Bossland also sells cheats for various other titles such as World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and Heroes of the Storm, which are mentioned in the complaint as well. The game developer accuses the cheat maker of various forms of copyright infringement, unfair competition, and violating the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision. According to Blizzard these bots and cheats also cause millions of dollars in lost sales, as they ruin the games for many legitimate players. "Moreover, by releasing 'Overwatch Cheat' just days after the release of 'Overwatch,' Defendants are attempting to destroy or irreparably harm that game before it even has had a chance to fully flourish."

Comments

There's a contradiction there.

[mark-t]

They say that the cheaters are ruing the game for many legitimate players, but if these players are legitimate, then they have, in fact, already bought the game, and so the cheaters can't actually be causing lost sales.

It might discourage people who aren't cheating from playing the game, of course... but they don't say that, they explicitly use the term "lost sales". I'm not sure how that can possibly be true.

Re:There's a contradiction there.

[NormalVisual]

Their code also remains buggy as hell. There are still serious bugs in WoW that have been there for years and years with no apparent motivation to fix them (which *also* costs them subscriptions), so it's not surprising that the client continues to be easily hacked as well.

Maybe they should work harder at cheat-proofing

[BitterOak]

Maybe they should work harder at cheat-proofing their games. If cheaters can so easily ruin the game for others, then they should perhaps design their games more robustly. Imagine if banking systems worked this way: they only way your bank can protect money in your account is to launch lawsuits at "cheat sites" which tell people how to steal money from other people's accounts. If their systems were designed that poorly, no one would have any money left in their bank accounts. Perhaps similar security practices should be applied to game design.

Bliz

[mfh]

They have a right to police their servers. They have a right to prevent cheats from functioning. They have a right to ban players for using cheat systems.

They do NOT have a right to sue because it's their own responsibility to build software checks and balances that would prevent cheating but THEY ARE TOO TIGHTFISTED to do so. That would cost money. That would require hiring enough competent coders and paying beta testers a living wage.

Blizzard "Entertainment" lost my faith completely, long ago, since the Wrath of the Lich King WOW expansion. They are morons who are managed by people who hate gamers and want to break gamers down rather than offer something fun and enjoyable. The rule at Blizzard is that if something is fun, they must find a way to remove or break the fun. Fuck those guys.

I hope this company gets the court venue switch to somewhere neutral, because California will try and convict with prejudice, regardless of the law or moral inadequacy.