Blizzard suing Overwatch cheat maker for the loss of ‘tens of millions of dollars in revenue’

Seems like an outlandish claim to me

If you play Overwatch and you’re not a cheater you’ve probably never heard of Watchover Tyrant, a paid program that allows players to see where all their enemies are and everyone’s names and health, as well as tweak the game’s field of view. The program is being sold by a German company known as Bossland GMBH as a subscription service for around $66 a year.

Blizzard caught wind of this and other cheats the company sells for Blizzard games and is taking it to court claiming the cheat maker is committing copyright infringement, breaking the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause, and creating unfair competition.

Blizzard claims that these cheat programs are causing them to lose tons of revenue just in the United States alone. “Defendants’ sale and distribution of the Bossland Hacks in the United States has caused Blizzard to lose millions or tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and to suffer irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation.”

It goes on to claim the cheat makers “are attempting to destroy or irreparably harm (Overwatch) before it even has had a chance to fully flourish” as the program released just days after the game itself. 

I’m no lawyer but I don’t quite follow the logic in all of Blizzard’s claims such as these cheats allowing people “to fraudulently obtain access to the Blizzard Games and then, having done so, to engage in unauthorized reproduction of the Blizzard Games” but I also don’t know the ins and outs of all of these cheats.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Bossland CEO Zwetan Letschew said the company is already in “over 10 ongoing legal battles in Germany” and that he finds it strange that now Blizzard wants to try the case in the U.S. as well since they have been involved in legal proceedings since 2011. Letschew also states that he believes a U.S. court has no legal jurisdiction over his company.

It doesn’t sound like Bossland is all too concerned with the suit, which makes sense considering they apparently won a case against Blizzard earlier this year dealing with a bot they released for Heroes of the Storm.

for all the nitty gritty legal details.

[TorrentFreak]