Activision has won a legal victory against the German cheat distributor EngineOwning. US District Judge Michael Fitzgerald awarded Activision $14,465,600 in lost profits compensation, as well as an additional $292,912 for attorney fees.
Since 2014, EngineOwning has provided players with access to a wide library of cheat programs. The library includes cheats for many games in the Call of Duty series, as well as multiplayer games from EA such as Battlefield and Titanfall. Access to the cheats is provided on a subscription basis.
The damage amount of $14.4 million was determined by multiplying the known number of EngineOwning's fraudulent software users by a predetermined penalty for each violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Activision requested the court to award EngineOwning only the minimum statutory damages, which amounted to $200. Over 72,000 cases were listed where players used EngineOwning cheats, resulting in a total penalty amount of $14,465,600 for DMCA violations. Activision was also entitled to a $5,600 attorney fee plus an additional 2% fee for every $100,000 penalty, totaling $292,912.
Activision filed the lawsuit back in 2022. The lawsuit claimed that the popularity of Call of Duty led to the creation of a secondary cheat market. Therefore, the use of cheats disrupted the gaming experience for players who did not cheat, leading them to quit the game or turn to competing products free from cheaters. Activision also argued that the existence of fraudulent software from EngineOwning damaged the reputation of Call of Duty and ultimately cost Activision millions of dollars.
Ten defendants, including EngineOwning's co-founders, did not appear at the hearings, and the court must decide how to distribute the imposed penalties among them.
Source: windowscentral
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