14-year-old was convicted of using cheats in Fortnite Battle Royale

Epic Games has been struggling with cheaters for a long time. Actually, many gaming companies are trying to cope with them in one way or another, but Epic Games went the furthest in this. She decided to sue those who use cheats. One of the respondents was Caleb Rogers, a 14-year-old player, whose violations were repeatedly recorded.

The popularity of the game began to gain momentum after the introduction of the shareware PvP regime Fortnite Battle Royale. "Console" and the owners of personal computers appreciated this innovation. In early November, the developers announced that the total number of unique players in this mode had already exceeded 20 million. It turns out that the “Battle of the King” has become even more popular than PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

The more players become, the cheaters become stronger, since popular multiplayer games always attract those who prefer to take the victory in a dishonest way. Epic Games company initially blocked troublemakers, thousands of cheaters were sent to the bank. But then the company representatives decided to start legal proceedings both with the creators of the cheats, and with those who use these cheats.
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If in the first case everything is more or less normal, then the decision to file a lawsuit against cheaters is like suing those who download music from torrents. The fighting techniques are about the same. In any case, the mother of the teenager accused of cheating thinks so. The company filed a lawsuit, but immediately received a response lawsuit filed by his mother in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

It is worth noting that cheating in this case violates both the terms of the Fornite User License Agreement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

But the response lawsuit filed by the boy’s mother is not bad. It indicates that her son did not develop cheats, did not distribute them, either for money or for nothing. All he did was download software from a popular site with programs of this kind and broadcast his broadcast with a demonstration of how cheats work. In addition, the mother of the accused claims that Epic Games has no clear evidence of the guilt of a teenager. The mother’s lawsuit also alleges that the user agreement is not effective against a teenager, since minors simply cannot accept the terms of this agreement without the permission of their parents or legal guardian.

"Caleb Rogers did not get my consent to play the free game Epic Games developed," the lawsuit says.


In turn, the company's lawyers claim that Caleb Rogers, showing his broadcasts of the game with an established net, was advertising illegal software that violates the clauses of the company's license agreement on YouTube. Also, company representatives say that the video downloaded then by a teenager, Epic Games asked to remove. But Caleb disagreed. Well, since the video was, in fact, a manual on the use of cheat codes, this is a direct violation of the law on copyright in the digital age (DMCA). And that is what led the company management to the idea that it is necessary to file a lawsuit.

Interestingly, after the company’s lawsuit had already been filed, Caleb Rogers recorded a second video in which he stated that he did use a cheat, showed it to YouTube’s audience, and did not want to remove the video at the company's request.

In the event that Epic Games gets its way, the amount of the lawsuit may be about $ 150,000. For the company itself, this is not so much, but for a teenager and his family, this is a lot of money, which may well lead to bankruptcy.

It is unclear whether the company knew that the offender was 14 years old when he filed a lawsuit. It is also unclear whether Epic Games is planning to finish the job, or simply wants to scare cheaters to reduce their number in their online game. Anyway, if the trial is brought to a logical end, then the violators of the normal gameplay will get a good example of what can be done and what is not worth it. In this conflict, supporters have both Epic Games and Rogers.