Last month, Blizzard demanded $US8.5 million ($11 million) from cheat maker Bossland as part of an ongoing legal battle. Now, in absence of any defence from the Honor Buddy (WoW) and Watchover Tyrant (Overwatch) creator, the court has sided with Blizzard.
The court has granted Blizzard statutory copyright damages totalling out to $US8,563,600 ($11,260,706). Bossland also owes Blizzard $US174,872 ($229,948) in attorneys’ fees. Further, Bossland is prohibited from selling programs that exploit Blizzard’s games in the United States.
“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 said (via TorrentFreak).
“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. Accordingly, the in-game cheating also harms Blizzard’s goodwill and reputation.”
Before the judgement was issued, Bossland CEO Zwetan Letschew told TorrentFreak that his company would continue in spite of any default judgement that might occur. Exactly how they plan to do that remains unclear, especially given the disappearing act they pulled while these proceedings were unfolding. For now, Blizzard has won a battle, but not the war. This judgement only applies to the United States, so Bossland isn’t out of options yet.
Comments
10 responses to “Court Orders Notorious Cheat Maker To Pay Blizzard $11 Million”
Why would you cheat, I suck at most online games, I dont ever think hell, maybe I should make other people have a shit time at games because I suck.
You clearly don’t “internet” enough.
Cheating is basically an admission of defeat. You weren’t good enough to cut it normally so you had to rig the game just to compete. Some people are fine with having that failure over their head, but I sure wouldn’t be.
Combination of low self esteem, narcissism, and anonymity. Cheating in online games is like any other form of cheating on a competitive level. It makes the person feel powerful. This is especially true for latter gens who were told they were special by helicopter parents, but the real world puts them in their place.
Could you imagine if you found out your child was cheating, what a kick in the nuts.
US$8.5M, rekt son.
Bossland is German. The odds of Blizzard enforcing this is minimal. It’ll probably impact any future travel plans the owners may have though.
Germany and the US do have an extradition treaty, and copyright infringement has been successfully used as a justification for extradition before. Given the size of the penalty it might be something the US decides to pursue.
Not difficult to do an ‘on paper’ move of the company somewhere that wont GAF, and carry on BAU.
Well, with a judgement like this against them, the next step might be to pressure credit card companies, PayPal, etc to stop doing business with the company. Even if they can’t collect the awarded amount, they might be able to cut off the company’s income.