Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Cheating is Ruining Gaming – Are Lawsuits the Answer?”.
Ooh cheat sellers losing Court. This is cool. Cheat mod providers lost two major decisions this week. The first suit was a copyright infringement claim launched by Bungie 3 years ago against Phoenix digital. The owners of mod selling site aim junkies, while some of Bungie’s claims were settled in arbitration last year, with Bungie being awarded 4.3 million. A jury has now decided in Bungie’s favor and awarded them $ 63,000.
That’S not a lot of money um, but these cases have typically ended in settlements in the past, and this decision will likely set a legal precedent for future cases. In a second case, a huge deal, yes, which is a huge deal so we’ll get to that in the discussion. In a second case, a judge has cided with Activision and ordered cheat maker engine owning to stop making and selling cheats to turn over its website and to pay Activision $ 14.4 million in Damages as well.
Excuse me, as well as covering their legal fees. So our discussion question here is: is it good that cheap providers are losing in court and I think uh I’ll I’ll, let Luke I’ll let Luke handle this one yeah. I think it’s super good that cheat uh developers are and providers are losing in court. It’S it’s honestly ruining a lot of modern gaming, especially in the FPS scene uh, but it’s it’s hitting a lot of other games as well.
Uh! It’S it’s never been worse! You you get ads on. I i’ I’ve received ads on YouTube. I’Ve received ads on Twitter. I’Ve received ads all over the place for cheats and back in the day you used to have to be at least somewhat um like technically competent to to know how to make it work, and these days not even sort of um yeah it. It’S just you. You launch the program, it runs a a goey on your screen. It it is automatically set up to actively protect you based on. You know, screen sharing problems and things like that.
So if it detects that you’re streaming or something like that, it’ll try to hide itself. Like it’s, it’s very conveniently built because this is a uh large industry with a significant customer base at this point in time, um and that needs to be shut down. If we want to have uh gaming online be legitimate at all moving forward. So I think it’s actually a very important and very big deal that this president has been set and look.
I don’t want to come across hypocritical because we’ve made very similar arguments in the past that the the difficulty of doing something is is not a a valid um or the ease of doing something is not a valid reason to Outlaw it. For example, I made the argument in our coverage of the flipper zero that no uh a a a a security. A pentesting tool should not be banned just for its capability of making these kinds of functions available to a lay person right. So, what’s the difference here is is probably what you’re asking and, from my point of view, a pent testing tool has legitimate purposes.
It has the ability to be used by gray, hat and white hat people to achieve better security overall, and so the argument that it is it is not okay. Yes, it is allowing some folks that otherwise wouldn’t have the technical means to engage in in technological Mischief, but it is generally broadening the uh understanding. I would say of the general public about the threats that are out there and that were already accessible at a very, very low price of entry for people who want to cause trouble or for people who are realistically doing something. A lot more nefarious than changing the numbers on a on a you know, gas station sign or um.
Okay, unlocking people’s cars, is pretty bad. There are definitely bad things that you can do with not just the flipper zero, but with these kind of like mainstream hacking tools, uh, but the difference here is that these game cheets serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Other than to degrade the experience of using this product. For absolutely everyone other than the person who buys the cheat, it’s it’s, it’s pay to win, except it’s not even endorsed by the game.
Developer. It’S not even available to the other player that wants to play legit. So that to me is the difference between these things, but you know: Allen asks in the float plane chat. Do you even think the courts can make such a nuanced uh nuanced? Okay, this word is not correct, but distinction do do they do they have that capability? Honestly, I I don’t know that they do, but generally I am supportive of companies that try to degrade or destroy the functionality of someone else’s product um being penalized for it, but hold on a second okay, we’re in a super gray area here, Luke.
Okay, what about a company that selling uh Tesla hacks, so you can unlock your heated seats or unlock additional performance or range? Are they are they’re not degrading the experience of using the product for the customer, but they are certainly degrading Tesla’s ability to charge money for that product? Are they the same? Isue? Is that with cheats? You are degrading the experience of other people sure but Tesla’s other people enable yourself uh they’re. Another company, not a corporation, is an individual you. If you I don’t. I don’t.
I think, that’s the stupidest thing ever. I don’t care, but that’s but legal thing. That’S a legal thing: I don’t make the rules, we have to consider it uh other users. I would say other users, Tesla’s, not a user.
So if you made it so that by enabling heated seats for you, the the seats of other people in the lanes around you, while you’re driving, have to be on active cooling for some reason, then yeah. That would be stupid. And I wouldn’t want that to be allowed um, it’s the the the issue is that it it significantly degrades the experience of of other people um and in a lot of situations. These are competitive environments, where people could be potentially pursuing careers or directly pursuing ranking positions that could lead them into the money um.
So this is their livelihood. Actually, a a financial problem. Absolutely yes, um karate Swan asks a great question. Could this set a precedent that affects the modding community and I think that by Luke’s definition, where we only care if it degrades the experience for other users, no, it shouldn’t affect the modern Community, but can we trust the legal system to make that distinction? I think it’s very challenging you would have to have such a deep knowledge of gaming to tell the difference between the legality of a mod that I don’t who cares lets you run around as a as a hypersexualized bunny in a single player game versus a mod That allows you of mods sure versus is a mod that allows you to uh change your in-game skin in fortnite to some combination of the default grass building and dirt textures, essentially turning you into a camouflaged uh player model right. What would be the difference to them, and I they I just I don’t I don’t. I don’t think I trust them to be able to tell the difference. So it’s really hard for me to take a Firm Stance on this, even if I am ultimately happy to see these uh these game, cheat makers, paying some kind of penalty and and to see finally, some kind of Crackdown that isn’t just falling on game developers to Try their best to infect our computers with more you know, kernel level, software and and rootkits in order to freaking, supposedly prevent cheaters from degrading the gaming experience uh hold on a second imperator. 3 373 says companies are not people, regardless of what a clueless judge thinks.
They’Re, not I don’t disagree with you. It makes absolutely no sense um, but it’s also. There are reasons for it, even if they suck is all I kind of have to say about that.
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