Call of Duty Cheat Maker ordered to pay Activision more than $14 million in damages and hand over its domain name
A famous video game cheater has been ordered to pay Activision more than $14 million in damages and give up his domain name.
The United States District Court for the Central District of California granted Activision’s motion for default judgment in the civil case against EngineOwning, which sells cheats for a number of Call of Duty games as well as Counter-Strike , Battlefield and Titanfall. Activision is awarded $14,465,600 in damages and $292,912 in attorneys’ fees, and the court issued a permanent injunction to enjoin EngineOwning’s “unlawful conduct” and transfer its domain name, www.EngineOwning. to, to Activision.
Activision successfully argued that EngineOwning continued to circumvent its security systems and sell the cheat software in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). She sought minimum damages of $200 under the DMCA multiplied by the general approximation of the number of downloads of the cheat software in the United States (72,328), for a total of $14,465,600. The Court found the request “reasonable” in the circumstances.
In February 2023, a judge ruled that EngineOwning must pay Activision $3 million in damages after a lawsuit in which Activision claimed high-profile streamers were using Warzone cheats. But EngineOwning continued operations, selling cheats for 2023’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 as well as Warzone. Activision then continued its long battle against the cheater, culminating in this decision.
There are now questions about whether Activision will see any of the money owed to it by EngineOwning, or its ability to claim ownership of the website. As of this article’s publication, HWID cheats and spoofers remain available for purchase from EngineOwning, which apparently operates outside the United States.
Of course, competitive multiplayer video games have had a cheating problem for decades, and Call of Duty in particular is considered to have a cheating and hacking problem, most notably on the free-to-play battle royale Warzone on PC. Activision and other video game publishers face an uphill battle in the war against cheaters, but the Call of Duty company hopes such decisions will have a significant deterrent effect as it prepares to release Black Ops 6 plus late this year.
Overnight, Activision tweeted to say that any accounts that participated in any form of reinforcement behavior in multiplayer or ranked Warzone play would have their SR reset and be removed from the leaderboard before the launch of Season 4. Activision continued : “Additionally, as previously announced, accounts that have accelerated their progression in Ranked Play will no longer be able to access Ranked Play modes in Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. »
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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