Blizzard is suing Bossland GMBH, the developer behind a popular Overwatch cheat tool called “Watchover Tyrant” for copyright infringement as well as unfair competition. Bossland is also the maker of several other cheats, including cheats for Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, and World of Warcraft. All of these games were also listed in the lawsuit.
The Watchover Tyrant allows players to see all of their teammates’ names and health as well as the enemies’. It also includes a radar that shows where all of the enemies are, who is alive, who is dead, and the field-of-view (FOV) for everyone. The tool has several monthly plans for subscribers to run on PCs.
With Blizzard’s strong stance against cheating, it is no surprise that they take serious issue with Bossland and its product. Their strongest complaint specifically targets copyright infringement.
They have done so by enabling and encouraging third-party ‘freelancers’ or contractors to fraudulently obtain access to the Blizzard Games and then, having done so, to engage in unauthorized reproduction of the Blizzard Games.
They also have done so by enabling users of the Bossland Hacks (particularly the Overwatch Cheat) to use the software to create derivative works, such as the dynamic screen overlay generated by the Overwatch Cheat.
Blizzard also noted in their complaint that when they started to take action against cheaters caught using various cheat tools, Bossland announced that they would make their specific Overwatch cheat harder to detect, suggesting that they intentionally violated the game’s end-user license agreement (EULA).
The company also adds that these cheats make the game unfair for many legitimate players, who do play without any bots or other cheating tools.
Defendants’ sale and distribution of the Bossland Hacks in the United States has caused Blizzard to lose millions or tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and to suffer irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation.
Moreover, by releasing ‘Overwatch Cheat’ just days after the release of ‘Overwatch,’ Defendants are attempting to destroy or irreparably harm that game before it even has had a chance to fully flourish.
Blizzard has filed this suit in the US, but Bossland claims that the US has no jurisdiction over their Germany-based company. However, this isn’t the first time Blizzard has tangled with Bossland in court before. They once sued Bossland for creating and selling a Heroes of the Storm bot, and a court in Germany earlier this year ruled against Blizzard, ordering them to pay Bossland’s legal costs and attorneys’ fees.
The Bossland CEO, Zwetan Letschew, told Torrent Freak the following about the lawsuit:
There are over 10 ongoing legal battles in Germany already. Now Blizzard wants to try it in the US too. One could ask himself, why now and not back in 2011. Why did Rod Rigole [Blizzard Deputy General Counsel] even bother to fly to Munich and drive with two other lawyers 380 km to Zwickau. Why not just sue us in the US five years ago?
If people want to throw their money away on cheating, I say let them. Blizzard should just find better ways to stop or discourage the cheating and make these users regret wasting their cash.
[Source: TorrentFreak]
