On 4th January, Call of Duty (COD) game series publisher Activision filed a lawsuit against popular cheat provider EngineOwning in the U.S. Central District of California, alleging “trafficking in circumvention devices; intentional interference with contractual relations; [and] unfair competition.”
According to the preliminary statement, Activision “seeks to put a stop to unlawful conduct” to EngineOwning’s operations, which the publisher claims distributes and sells “malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantages” across a number of its game titles.
Activision files lawsuit against EngineOwning
Activision claims that the ongoing activities of EngineOwning damage its games, overall business and experience of the community of players.
Accordingly, Activision is seeking actual or maximum compensation for statutory damages under the “anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA” of $ 2500 for each violation of the law and other equitable relief.
Beyond this, Activision also claims to have evidence that EngineOwning is attempting to create cheats for its other intellectual property, Overwatch.
This is also not the first time Activision has targeted a cheat provider.
In 2017, Activision won a lawsuit for $ 8.6 million against cheat provider Bossland after the provider ignored requests to cease distribution of World of Warcraft manipulation software.
Activision also had cheat provider CrazyAim shut down in August last year.
Despite EngineOwning seemingly being based out of Germany, the lawsuit alleges that the company actively distributes cheating software in the State of California in the United States and thus fall within its jurisdiction.
Activision has appropriated an aggressive response against cheating software with the release of its Richochet anti-cheat software and kernel-level driver for Warzone and Vanguard; however, this has primarily been contested by EngineOwning.
The entire lawsuit is available freely to the public via Document Cloud.
We will endeavour to provide further updates as more information regarding this developing story becomes available.
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Featured image courtesy of Activision and Unsplash.