The bot manufacturer Bossland from Zwickau is in trouble. The creators behind bots for WoW, Diablo and Overwatch are being sued for around $8.5 million.
The game developer Blizzard has been in a legal conflict with the Zwickau company Bossland for years. They create cheat programs for Blizzard’s popular games.
Specifically, it concerns bots for
- WoW (Honorbuddy)
- Overwatch (Watchover Tyrant)
- Diablo 3 (Demonbuddy)
- Hearthstone (Hearthbuddy)
- Heroes of the Storm (Stormbuddy)
For a long time, it seemed like the conflict would remain unresolved. It went from instance to instance in Germany, without much movement in the matter. Recently, however, the legal pendulum seems to be swinging in favor of Blizzard – Bossland is noticing this.
Recently, Bossland reported financial difficulties due to ongoing court costs and retroactively declared the “lifetime licenses” that customers had purchased for their bots as expired. Customers had to buy new licenses.
The ban waves against their WoW bot have also increased recently. It seemed like Blizzard had Bossland in their sights.
Bossland is to pay over $8.7 million
Now it seems Blizzard is gearing up for a legal knockout. According to the site Torrentfreak, Blizzard wants over $8.5 million from Bossland. This time the jurisdiction is not in Germany, but in the USA: in Santa Ana, California.
The bill is: Bossland sold 42,818 hacks in the USA that violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). To compensate for this, Blizzard is seeking $200 per sale – for the price at which Bossland sells yearly licenses for the hacks, it is said. Blizzard wants the money as compensation for the infringement of copyright rights. The total amount, including attorney and court fees, amounts to $8,740,235.41 – that is €8,228,040.14.
This matter follows a lengthy court correspondence. The court has ordered Bossland to respond to this complaint and to defend itself. Bossland has missed all deadlines, reports Torrentfreak. Blizzard itself says it only demands the “minimum”; they could have demanded more in their view. It is assumed that Bossland earned considerably more from the sales.
Torrentfreak believes that since Bossland did not defend itself, it is likely that Blizzard will be awarded a large sum. However, whether they will actually see any of that money is questionable.
Torrentfreak has published the complete complaint at the jurisdiction here.
Read more about the conflict between Bossland and Blizzard here:
WoW: February banwave hits German bot Honorbuddy – Blizzard means business
WoW: German bots are running out of steam – Honorbuddy in crisis
