Overwatch is a huge success on the PC and like most PC games, it received a number of cheat programs. The most popular of them is Watchover Tyrant, created by Bossland. And as a result of that, Blizzard filed a lawsuit against Bossland, accusing it of various forms of copyright infringement, unfair competition, and violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision.
As Blizzard claimed in its lawsuit:
“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.”
However, things become a little more complicated as Blizzard accuses Bossland of contributory 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.”
Bossland, on the other hand, claims that it has not received the lawsuit yet and that there are over 10 ongoing legal battles in Germany already between Blizzard and Bossland.
As Bossland CEO Zwetan Letschew told TorrentFreak:
“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?”
It’s worth noting that Bossland won in Germany against Blizzard earlier this year (regarding a bot for Heroes of the Storm).
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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