EngineOwning: German cheat provider owes Activision 14 million dollars
The cheat provider EngineOwning has been fined 14 million US dollars by a US court. It is unclear whether plaintiff Activision will receive the money.
The website EngineOwning.to offers cheats for "Call of Duty: Warzone", among other things.
(Image: Activision)
Activision is to receive 14.5 million US dollars from those responsible for the cheat provider EngineOwning. This was decided by the US District Court in California. In addition, the operators are to pay legal fees and hand over the EngineOwning.to domain to Activision.
EngineOwning offers cheat software for Activision's "Call of Duty" games, including aimbots for automatic aiming and wallhacks that allow players to see through walls. In the ruling, which was published by technology magazine The Verge, the US court deemed these tools to be copyright infringements because they circumvented the games' copy protection measures.
It remains to be seen whether the ordered measures and payments can be enforced. EngineOwning was founded by the German company EngineOwning Software UG, based in Oberpfaffenhofen. The company was sued by Epic years ago over "Fortnite" cheats.
Defendants withdrew
Activision filed its lawsuit against EngineOwning in January 2022. According to the portal Torrentfreak, some of the defendants initially defended themselves against the allegations in court. Two defendants are said to have since reached an out-of-court settlement with Activision. Meanwhile, the remaining individuals named in the lawsuit have withdrawn completely from the court case in the course of the negotiations.
The EngineOwning.to website is currently still accessible and cheats can still be purchased by subscription - 30 days of cheating in the game of choice costs 20 euros. Meanwhile, the current operator of the website denies that the accused persons are still involved in EngineOwning.to. "All the people against whom the lawsuit is directed have been inactive for a long time. The project was handed over to a new owner years ago," writes the alleged operator of the website under the pseudonym "Homie" in a forum post. In addition, alternative domains have already been created for the cheat website. The operators state Dubai as the location for EngineOwning.to.
Jury decides against cheats
In addition to technical countermeasures, video game developers often take legal action to defend themselves against cheats for their online games. In May, a US jury ruled for the first time that cheat software for the Bungie game "Destiny 2" constitutes copyright infringement. So far, there have been no jury decisions in cheat lawsuits because the defendants often settle out of court or do not participate in the trial.
Cheats in multiplayer titles give cheaters unfair advantages that spoil the fun for other players and can therefore have massive economic consequences for the developers. Technical countermeasures cost money and development time. They are also not always popular with fair players - for example, when they work at kernel level like Activision's Ricochet.
Nevertheless, the fight against cheaters is essential for developers who want to run their online game successfully in the long term. Otherwise there is a risk of premature demise. This happened, for example, with the online shooter "The Cycle" from Berlin-based studio Yager, which had to be scrapped just one year after its release. The number of players collapsed because the cheaters could not be brought under control.
(dahe)