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

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..."

Comments

There Are No Decent Video Game Makers Left

[dryriver]

Aside from the small indy developers, all the big guys are run by MBAs from Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other business schools. These people do not understand how to make good games. They do not understand that if you want 60 - 100 Dollars from a kid or teenager for a game that their ADULT PARENTS have to work to pay for, you have to actually provide something in return. All they understand is how to MONETIZE piss-average games with very, very simple game mechanics that 1 or 2 experienced coders could actually write on their own in under a year. The reason they GAMIFY everything in all the big games with ranks, achievements, micro-payments, unlocks and so forth is because there is virtually NO content in these games. These games are mashups of game mechanics invented back in the 90s, with some pretty 3D graphics and sound effects thrown in. And by the way, the people that create the actual 3D artwork, animation and other "content" for these games work under very bad conditions, with little job security, long hours, crunch periods and other nastiness.