Bossland – MMO Fallout

Blizzard has emerged victorious in its lawsuit against Bossland, a cheat maker based in Germany. The court ruled that Bossland is to pay $8.6 million in damages, with the potential for more to cover Blizzard’s legal costs, and set forward an injunction preventing the company from selling their products in the United States. Bossland has already been prevented from selling their cheats in the UK.

“The Bossland hacks destroy the integrity of the Blizzard games, thereby alienating and frustrating legitimate players and diverting revenue from Blizzard to defendants,”

During the court case, Blizzard successfully argued that Bossland bypassed Blizzard’s anti-cheat tech, thus violating DMCA rules against circumvention and reverse engineering. Blizzard’s case, while requesting a large sum, was likely an easy win as while Bossland did attempt to have the case dismissed, they didn’t actually show up in court to defend themselves.

(Source: BBC)

Overwatch 2016-05-06 05-43-23-72

Blizzard has filed suit against World of Warcraft bot maker and Diablo gold farmer Bossland GmbH at a federal court in California. In addition to its antics in World of Warcraft and Diablo, German-based Bossland also sells cheats for other Blizzard titles including Heroes of the Storm.

The lawsuit is quite standard for companies going up against cheat developers, utilizing copyright infringement, unfair competition, and DMCA allegations of tampering with the game’s DRM. The lawsuit also alleges that the cheat makers are causing damage to Blizzard’s business by harming their goodwill and reputation with customers forced to deal with cheaters.

“Defendants not only know that their conduct is unlawful, but they engage in that conduct with the deliberate intent to harm Blizzard and its business. Blizzard is entitled to monetary damages, injunctive and other equitable relief, and punitive damages against Defendants.”

Blizzard is claiming jurisdiction in the United States as Bossland does business in the country. The game developer previously sued Bossland in German court over Diablo III gold farming and was forced to withdraw their case.

(Source: Complaint)