Epic Games reaches settlement with Fortnite cheater

[midian182]

Late last month, it was revealed that one of the two people being sued by Epic Games for using cheats in its Fortnite Battle Royale game was a 14-year-old boy; a situation that led to an angry letter being sent to the court from his mother. Now, the studio has responded to her claims and settled with the other player.

In addition to arguing that there was no evidence he had modified the game, one of the mother’s main objections was that Epic violated Delaware laws by publicly naming her son. However, the company is claiming its innocence as it never knew he was a minor. "We did not violate Rule 5.2(a) or Local Civil Rule 17.2 because we did not know when we filed the papers that Defendant is a minor," states its letter to the court (via TorrentFreak).

Epic adds that even though the mother’s use of the child’s name in her letter could be taken as a waiver, it will stick to using only initials going forward. "We plan to include only Defendant's initials or redact his name entirely in all future filings with the Court," it said. Epic is seeking guidance on whether the current filing that uses his full name should be sealed, re-filed without his name, or left unchanged.

In the other case, against Charles Vraspir, a.k.a. “Joreallean,” Epic says he was banned nine times and is suspected of having written code for the cheats. The pair reached a settlement that forbids him from cheating in Fortnite or any of Epic’s other games. He is also prohibited from “creating, writing, developing, advertising, promoting, and/or distributing anything that infringes Epic’s works now or hereafter protected by any of Epic’s copyrights.”

If Vraspir violates the agreement, he will have to pay $5000. In all likelihood, a similar agreement will be reached with the 14-year-old.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/72167-epic-games-reaches-settlement-fortnite-cheater.html

 

[stewi0001]

So how hard is it to write code to hack the game?

 

[senketsu]

I think this was the point, to reach a group (the cheaters) that felt untouchable, a taste of the heavy hammer of the law, that they can be reached and life changed. I don't think they ever intended to go all the way, just get some publicity and scare some cheaters straight. Of course this can't ever be admitted or it loses its strength.

 

[Uncle Al]

Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law .... of course if Epic programmers and server administrators were worth a hoot they could have simply ID'd the kids IP address and outright banned him. Now, with the issue of "pay to play" and all these "boxes" that are deemed to be gambling, will the courts take up the matter of cheaters that steal these things? That's a 1st class felony and parents should be held accountable, especially since they provided the internet, thus making them accomplices. The game companies are going to need to be held accountable for allowing a person under age to participate, since it could be considered gambling.

Kind of makes you wonder if all the Brain Trusts for these game makers are doing their job, or just taking the money and hoping all will go well!!!!

 

[McMurdeR]

Banning video game cheaters? Absolutely. Sueing them? Hasn't it gone a bit far?

 

[Kibaruk]

.... of course if Epic programmers and server administrators were worth a hoot they could have simply ID'd the kids IP address and outright banned him...

Unless they are paying for a service to have a fixed ip, good luck with the IP ban. You would either have to ban the ISP, or making a problem for the future as when they reset their modem and get a new IP, and someone else gets that banned IP... you get the idea.

Banning video game cheaters? Absolutely. Sueing them? Hasn't it gone a bit far?

No. They are ruining a product and the experience for everyone, because they want to have a false edge over other players, or to make money out of it? Screw them.

 

[Maevaald]

Banning video game cheaters? Absolutely. Sueing them? Hasn't it gone a bit far?

Not really. For one case, the 14yo, another article was stating that he was streaming with the cheats and showing where to get them. On top of this, the actual reasoning for the lawsuit, he apparently filed a counter-claim for a DMCA takedown of said stream from Epic.

 

[MaXtor]

I cheated in single player games as a kid, while it brought immediate satisfaction, that satisfaction never lasted. It took a while to realize that if you receive all the rewards before playing the game, then you have no reason to continue playing. You lose the rush of dopamine you get when you finally succeed after numerous failures.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume most cheaters are young teenagers, at least that's been my experience. Unless the individual is singled out and threatened with legal action, I doubt these two examples will be much of a deterrent. If that were the case, kids would never experiment with drugs, but they do. :/

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

I say showing their real name puts them in a whole other spotlight that crosses no more of a line than the acts they themselves perpetrate. It's important to show the world who is causing such grief to others, because chances are if they're willing to do this in a game, their willing to do this in real world cases, as well.

 

[ghostf1re]

I'm more surprised that he was dedicated enough to cheating that he was banned 9 times.

 

[Brian Rasmussen]

Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law .... of course if Epic programmers and server administrators were worth a hoot they could have simply ID'd the kids IP address and outright banned him. Now, with the issue of "pay to play" and all these "boxes" that are deemed to be gambling, will the courts take up the matter of cheaters that steal these things? That's a 1st class felony and parents should be held accountable, especially since they provided the internet, thus making them accomplices. The game companies are going to need to be held accountable for allowing a person under age to participate, since it could be considered gambling.

Kind of makes you wonder if all the Brain Trusts for these game makers are doing their job, or just taking the money and hoping all will go well!!!!

Banning by IP doesn't work. Many people don't have static public IP addresses. And even if you have a static IP address, you may not have been playing on your network when you engaged in the activity that got you banned. Let's say that you have a static IP address, you are the only person that ever plays the game from that address, and you were caught cheating or engaging in otherwise impermissible action while using that IP address. After they banned you, you can still change your IP address. Or IP spoof.

This is why companies generally don't ban by IP. It sounds foolproof to those who know little about IT, but it only makes the banning company look foolish.