U.S. Federal Court in Central California has ordered German company Bossland GMBH to pay $8.6 million in damage to Blizzard Entertainment. The U.S. game maker filed the copyright lawsuit against Bossland in July last year.
According to BBC, the court ordered the German cheat maker to pay $8.6 million in copyright infringement to Blizzard Entertainment. However, Bossland is still promoting its cheat software in the company's website, defying the court order by claiming that creating bot is not against the laws.
In the court filing on July 5 last year, Blizzard Entertainment alleged the bot created by Bossland infringed the copyright of "Overwatch" owned by Blizard. The U.S. game maker argue that Bossland had reverse-engineered the game to create the bots, thus altering the game without permision. In its court filing the Irvine, California-based company argued, "The Bossland hacks destroy the integrity of the Blizzard games, thereby alienating and frustrating legitimate players and diverting revenue from Blizzard to defendants."
Blizzard Entertainment was represented by Mitchell Silberberg law firm, while neither Bossland nor its legal representative appear in court during the proceeding. The court granted the statutory copyright damages to Blizzard, and also ordered Bossland to pay $174,872 in attorneys’ fees, Kotaku reported. The court order stated that Blizzard has shown a damage and harm as a result of the cheat software of "Overwatch" sold by the German company, which threatened the fair game play.
"Overwatch" has become one of the most popular game from the Blizzard Entertainment. Since the game was released last year, its popularity has climbed high, and reaching 7 million players within a week after its launching on May 24, 2016. As per January this year, the game has accumulated 20 million players worldwide, making it the 7th highest selling game. Therefore, a cheat software such as those created by Bossland will threaten the fair game among its players.
This month, Overwatch has introduced a new character Orisa. Watch the introduction of the new tank character below:
