Epic has sued a 14-year-old for allegedly using a cheat in Fortnite. The lawsuit becomes increasingly crazy and bizarre as more details emerge. The boy is reportedly the first to be sued “only” for cheating.
We have reported several times about Epic’s lawsuit against a 14-year-old. New information reveals that the lawsuit is even more extraordinary than initially thought.
Why is this special? The 14-year-old is reportedly the first ever to be sued solely for cheating. This was reported by The Verge, citing Kendra Albert, an expert in gaming law who teaches at Harvard Law School. In all other cases, the defendants either developed the cheats themselves or sold them.
In one case, Jagex had sued unknown bot users in Runescape to compel PayPal to release the contact data. Once Jagex had this data, they banned the users and dropped the lawsuit.
What did the 14-year-old do? He downloaded an aimbot and wallhack cheat, then played, filmed himself while doing so, and posted this live stream on YouTube. He included the download link for the cheat in the YouTube description. When the video was taken down, he protested by posting a second video and created a new account to upload a third video about the Fortnite cheat. All of this happened in one day, on October 14, 2017.
Why is the 14-year-old being sued anyway? Epic filed a complaint against the video on YouTube. The video is then taken down, and a strike is placed on the YouTube channel. The 14-year-old indignantly disputed the strike. The video would have been restored, except Epic filed a lawsuit, and that is exactly what Epic did.
Boy apparently considers cheating as “modding”
How did the 14-year-old dispute the strike? The defendant disputed the complaint by saying: “i did nothing rong this strike is all wrong i was modding in a video game that isnt against youtubes TOS why was i striked!!!!!” The boy sees his cheating as a kind of “modding,” which is supposedly okay. Furthermore, the boy is said to have posted the contact details of Epic’s lawyer in one video and used the hashtag #FuckUEpicGames in another video.
What does the boy think? The boy explained in a video in October that the charges against him are nonsense. He is accused of infringing Epic’s copyright by modifying the code. He claims he did not do that, has no knowledge of coding, and only downloaded and applied something from the internet. He overlooks the fact that the cheat program he used actually modified the code.
The boy and his mother apparently do not have a lawyer. Verge further notes that all other accused cheaters seem to have settled out of court with Epic. Only the boy is still remaining. Just a few days ago, he uploaded new videos like “CSO Hacking (Best Moments).” The boy and his mother have not yet found a lawyer according to The Verge. The mother had reached out to the court with a letter.
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