Bobby Kotick and Blizzard have stepped up their frenzied campaign against Starcraft 2 cheaters by taking legal action against some of those (allegedly) responsible for coding the sought-after hacks.
Indeed, the company has filed a suit in the Los Angeles US District Court against the rogue devs, accusing them of creating and selling hacks in violation of end-user license agreements, Battle.net terms of use and copyright law.
“Just days after the release of Starcraft II, Defendants already had developed, marketed, and distributed to the public a variety of hacks and cheats designed to modify (and in fact destroy) the Starcraft II online game experience,” Blizzard claimed in the suit, a copy of which was obtained by Gamespot Australia.
“When users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer’s RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II.”
According to Blizzard, the three primary defendants – named as “Permaphrost,” “Cranix,” and “Linuxawesome” – have already caused “massive and irreparable” to the company.
“Among other things, [the accused] irreparably harm the ability of Blizzard’s legitimate customers (i.e. those who purchase and use unmodified games) to enjoy and participate in the competitive online experience.
“That, in turn, causes users to grow dissatisfied with the game, lose interest in the game, and communicate that dissatisfaction, thereby resulting in lost sales of the game or ‘add-on’ packs and expansions thereto.”
It should be noted that two of the above-mentioned defendants reside in Canada, while the third lives in Peru. As such, it remains unclear what jurisdiction – if any – the court can exercise over the accused.
