Epic Games Is Suing Two Fortnite Cheaters

Epic Games has filed suit against Brandon Broom and Charles Vraspir for making and utilizing applications that allows players to cheat in the game Fortnite. Both defendants are supposedly related to the subscription-based cheating service called AddictedCheats.net.

These lawsuits are unique because the cheating service itself is not the topic of the civil lawsuit. Rather, Broom and Vraspir are being sued personally. Each case of copyright infringement carries a penalty of around $150,000.

“This is a copyright infringement and breach of contract case in which the Defendant is infringing Epic’s copyrights by injecting unauthorized computer code into the copyright protected code of Epic’s popular Fortnite video game. In so doing, Defendant is creating unauthorized derivative works of Fortnite by modifying the game code and, thus, materially altering the game that the code creates and the experience of those who play it.”

Firms like Blizzard Entertainment have been successful previously utilizing copyright infringement because the basis of lawsuits against services that cheats. One recent case against Bossland GmbH, the German founder of bots known as Honorbuddy and Hearthbuddy along with many others, led to 42,818 cases of copyright infringement, which totaled $8.6 million in damages.