Fortnite, the game developer, filed a lawsuit against a 14-year-old who was supposed to be using cheating software to gain competitiveness in multiplayer. His mother is fighting against it.
Epic Games decided not only to prohibit two battle royal players from cheating in October but also to sue them. A month later, a fraudster's mother starts to fight back, accusing the Epic of publicizing the name of her son, and questions the entire litigation.
In a letter to the judge of the case obtained by Torrent Freak, the mother says as follows. Epic does not prove that her son has modified the game as mentioned in the lawsuit. In addition, the company does not give parent consent necessary to play. Since games can be played for free, in fact, they never suffered a large profit loss.
The mother also alleges Epic is "using a 14-year-old child as a scapegoat to make an example of him… Instead of Epic Games, Inc. suing the websites providing the cheat codes, they are going to the individuals using these codes."
Epic explained the proof of litigation against minors in a statement received via e-mail: "This particular lawsuit arose as a result of the defendant filing a DMCA counterclaim to a takedown notice on a YouTube video that exposed and promoted Fortnite Battle Royale cheats and exploits. Under these circumstances, the law requires that we file suit or drop the claim."
Essentially, young offenders live streamed at Fortnite Battle Royale using cheat downloaded online. Epic caught him after challenging YouTube to get one of his videos. Epic details in a statement that it does not allow fraud regardless of the age of criminals.
"Epic is not okay with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age," the company stated. "As stated previously, we take cheating seriously, and we’ll pursue all available options to make sure our games are fun, fair, and competitive for players."
Epic was only pursuing what he thought was legally right to protect the game, but the company made a mistake. They publicly disclosed the name of 14 years old, but this is not legal in accordance with Delaware law.
"Epic Games, Inc. has released the defendant's name publicly, therefore allowing news articles and different online publications to obtain his name and in turn release additional information," the mother said in her letter. "Referencing State of Delaware House Bill No. 64 it is illegal to release underage individuals' personal information by any agencies. Epic Games Inc. is in complete violation of this."
There is a possibility that Epic did not know the age of the minor when exposing the name. But Epic did not deal with that question when asked.
Despite saying that his son is not getting money with live streaming, this mother added that Epic is demanding financial benefits gained from this fraud.
Source: http://mashable.com/2017/11/27/epic-fortnite-lawsuit-mother/#Iw8mrjlZHaqY
