A few days ago, another company profiting off the misery of FPS players everywhere shuttered its doors: After receiving a legal warning from Activision, cheat maker Raging Nation shut down its website.
Where previously the site distributed aimbots, wallhacks, and all manner of cheatyface “products,” today you’ll find a brief statement that reads: “Someone affiliated with our business has received a legal notice from Activision. We may not agree with the assertions made in these legal demands, but we are in no position to litigate with such a large company. It brings us no pleasure to inform all of you that we will be closing our business starting today.”
Whether they agree or not, they’ll join a growing community of bottomfeeders that have been taken down recently. Lawsuits by Activision and Bungie have resulted in millions of dollars in assessed damages, and have established precedents in what has historically been murky waters.
There are no laws, of course, prohibiting cheating in videogames. The most reliable method these companies have used to combat the hackers has been the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), specifically insofar as it prohibits circumventing technological measures to access a copyrighted work. So far this has proven to be the best recourse against the efforts of the bad guys.
Of course, even with some high profile victories in court, there are some losses as well. Jurisdiction can be hard to establish in cases like these. Take for example Bungie v. Thorpe, where Bungie had a motion denied for lack of personal jurisdiction, as the defendant was not a resident of California.
It can also be hard to feel satisfaction sometimes, even in the victories. Activision’s landmark case against EngineOwning awarded $14.5 million, but the defendants were defiant. When we reported this case back in May, the cheat makers had moved their operations from Germany to Dubai and said that “business as usual at EngineOwning will continue for years to come.”
The effort to stop cheaters is multi-pronged—legal actions, anti-cheat software, and sometimes the efforts of whole communities of players are involved—and I’m not holding my breath for the war to ever be won conclusively, but it does at least look like the legal wins are making a difference.
