You know the saying cheaters never prosper? Well, Blizzard just proved that saying is true. They found a cheating app being used in their games, such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, and recently won a lawsuit against the developer.
A federal court in California has ordered Bossland GMBH, a German developer, to pay $8.5 million to Blizzard in damages for selling products that infringe on the publisher’s copyrighted material. The German-based Bossland is no longer allowed to sell or market its game-cheating products in the U.S.
Blizzard has been through constant legal battles, but this fight against Bossland is the latest win in its ongoing campaign against cheating apps. However, the publisher’s legal rights are still being fought for in Germany.
Bossland did not defend itself in court after unsuccessfully attempting to get the case dismissed. This led to an easy victory for Blizzard.
“Bossland materially contributes to infringement by creating the Bossland Hacks, making the Bossland Hacks available to the public, instructing users how to install and operate the Bossland Hacks, and enabling users to use the software to create derivative works,” the California District Court said in a written decision. “Blizzard has established a showing of resulting damage or harm because Blizzard expends a substantial amount of money combating the use of the Bossland Hacks to ensure fair game play.”
The court agreed with Blizzard that cheating apps are an violation of copyright under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Bossland’s hacks also forced Blizzard to spend time and money developing countermeasures and anti-cheating tools. The court found those violations especially damaging towards Blizzard.
“Additionally, players of the Blizzard Games lodge complaints against cheating players, which has caused users to grow dissatisfied with the Blizzard Games and cease playing,” the court explained. “Accordingly, the in-game cheating also harms Blizzard’s goodwill and reputation.”
There will always be cheaters and we definitely have not seen the last of people like this, but this case forced Bossland to go underground in the U.S.
