Overwatch cheat creators being sued by Blizzard for copyright infringement

Blizzard added that the profitability of their games relies on a fun and fair environment, and cheating tools like the ones made by Bossland “has caused Blizzard to lose millions or tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and to suffer irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation”. Bossland insists that the USA has no authority over a company that supposedly has no connection to the country, and that Blizzard could easily have sued 5 years ago over previous cheat software.

The hack itself isn’t now active, as after Blizzard’s first Overwatch banwave it was taken offline in the hopes of developing more counter-measures to remain undetected. The company also makes mods for other Blizzard games, including World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm and Diablo 3. Hopefully Blizzard can put a stop to this cheating, though given how long Bossland has been hacking Blizzard’s games, any resolution may not come soon.

It claims violation of the DMCA anti-circumvention provision, unfair competition and copyright infringement.

Blizzard has filed a lawsuit in California against Bossland GMBH, the German company behind Watchover Tyrant, a programme which allows all sorts of unpleasant and unsporting cheating shenanigans. The Bossland Hacks destroy the integrity of the Blizzard Games, thereby alienating and frustrating legitimate players and diverting revenue from Blizzard to Defendants’. “Blizzard is entitled to monetary damages, injunctive and other equitable relief, and punitive damages against Defendants”, the complaint reads.

Those legal entanglements previously included Blizzard suing a Bossland freelancer named Apoc for selling Heroes of the Storm botting software, and Bossland itself accusing Blizzard of acquiring the source code for that software in a deal with Apoc.

Blizzard are apparently seeking damages, noting that there are thousands of cheaters already (although they also note that Blizzard are engaged in taking action against these cheaters).