US jury classifies cheats as copyright infringement
Cheats in "Destiny 2" infringe copyright, a US jury has ruled. The ECJ is also dealing with this issue.
Cheat tools for "Destiny 2" constitute copyright infringement, according to a US jury.
(Image: Bungie)
According to a US jury, video game cheats can infringe the developer's copyright. This was decided by jury members in Seattle in the case of a lawsuit brought by Sony subsidiary Bungie against cheat provider Aimjunkies. The provider must therefore pay Sony 63,000 US dollars in damages.
Aimjunkies' parent company Phoenix Digital intends to take legal action against the ruling, reports games journalist Stephen Totilo. The jury's verdict is likely to be more important to everyone involved than the amount of damages: according to Totilo, this is the first time that a jury court has ruled on video game cheats.
Sony subsidiary Bungie had already filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the company Phoenix Digital, whose website Aimjunkies offers tools that players can use to gain an advantage in "Destiny 2", among other things. Cheat providers often buckle and agree on compensation payments, for example, before a lawsuit is brought to a conclusion. In this case, however, Phoenix Digital has decided to fight the case.
Question for the ECJ
Whether cheats constitute copyright infringement is also a question for the ECJ: a lawsuit filed by console manufacturer Sony ended up before the European Court of Justice in February 2023 at the request of the Federal Court of Justice, which is now to clarify the facts of the case in the EU. This case is about cheat hardware for PlayStation's long-discontinued mobile console PSP: the tools "Action Replay PSP" and "Tilt FX" are plugged into Sony's mobile console and can activate commands in video games not intended by the developers via their own menus.
At the heart of the discussion in Germany is Section 69c No. 2 of the Copyright Act. It stipulates that "the translation, adaptation, arrangement and other alterations of a computer program" constitute copyright infringement. EU law also recognizes the term "adaptation".
Courts in Germany had previously ruled differently: The Hamburg Regional Court agreed with Sony in 2012 with a broad interpretation of the concept of reworking. The Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, on the other hand, ruled in the second instance that cheat tools do not constitute a modification of video games.
Cheats as an economic factor
Cheats represent a major risk for providers of online games: Because cheaters spoil the fun for other players, they can jeopardize the financial success of multiplayer titles. Companies such as Sony and Activision are therefore constantly coming up with new ways to get a leg up on cheaters - not only legally, but also through technical measures. This costs money and development time.
The case of "The Cycle" shows just how important the fight against cheaters is for the operators of competitive multiplayer titles. After a successful launch, the online shooter from German studio Yager rapidly lost players because there were simply too many cheaters. The Cycle" was never able to recover from this, and after just over a year the server will soon be shut down.
(dahe)