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Free Game Company Sues 14-Year-Old Over 'Cheats' Video -- Claiming DMCA Violation (bbc.co.uk)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the suing-8th-graders dept.

Bizzeh shared this report from the BBC: A mother has written a letter in defense of her 14-year-old son who is facing a lawsuit over video game cheats in the US. Caleb Rogers is one of two people facing legal action from gaming studio Epic Games for using cheat software to play the free game Fortnite. The studio says it has taken the step because the boy declined to remove a YouTube video he published which promoted how to use the software... "This company is in the process of attempting to sue a 14-year-old child," she wrote in the letter which has been shared online by the news site Torrentfreak.

Ms. Rogers added that she had not given her son parental consent to play the game as stated in its terms and conditions, and that as the game was free to play the studio could not claim loss of profit as a result of the cheats... In a statement given to the website Kotaku, Epic Games said the lawsuit was a result of Mr. Rogers "filing a DMCA counterclaim to a takedown notice on a YouTube video that exposed and promoted Fortnite Battle Royale cheats and exploits... Epic is not OK with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age," it said.
Cory Doctorow counters that the 14-year-old "correctly asserted that there was no copyright infringement here. Videos that capture small snippets of a videogame do not violate that game creator's copyrights, because they are fair use..."

10 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. The DMCA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is worse than Hitler.

    1. Re:The DMCA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Is worse than Hitler.

      No. Hitler was responsible for many millions of people dead. The DMCA is a law about copyright policy.

    2. Re:The DMCA by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That was sort of my feeling as well. Screw the DMCA, but screw cheaters as well. And screw parents that defend their misbehaving little spawn no matter what they do.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:The DMCA by MrL0G1C · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It amazes me the level of hatred aimed at cheating, the level of seriousness to me is less than that of littering - a cigarette butt. It's not a crime in the UK where we don't have the god awful DMCA laws, it's just something annoying that sad people do, probably mostly kids. People need to get some perspective.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    4. Re:The DMCA by BronsCon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What damage? It's a free game, they can't claim monetary losses, as there were no potential monetary gains. The court doesn't really recognize any other form of damages when dealing with a business.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    5. Re:The DMCA by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the level of seriousness to me is less than that of littering

      Well it's not world ending, but cheating in online games to me is more than littering. It's more like letting your dog shit on the path and not cleaning it up. It annoys everyone around you and spoils the environment for all, not to mention directly affects the person who comes in contact with it.

  2. Fix the fucking game!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of legal action they should taking coding action to prevent these sorts of abuses from being possible...

    I learnt as a kid if you don't want someone to take something don't leave it where it can be taken... leave your bike on the street it will be stolen... write shitty code it will be hacked..

    PSA on behalf of "the internet"...

    Thank the kid and close the holes....

  3. Re:There Are No Decent Video Game Makers Left by damnbunni · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The game costs $40 to buy.

    There is a $150 edition, but that's actually THREE copies of the game, plus some other crapola.

  4. Re: The Dirty Secret Of Where EULAs Came From by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    When you are playing a free-to-play online multiplayer game, at what point can you claim to own anything?

  5. Re:This stems from a problem with Youtube itself.. by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I kind of like that copyright claims are resolved by the courts, not Google.

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