Combatting Cheating in Games: Exploring Legal Strategies

The prevalence of cheating in games has prompted developers to seek innovative solutions. A significant portion of revenue for game developers comes from in-game purchases and expansions, which requires retaining players over an extended period. Offering a competitive multiplayer experience is crucial for player retention, but it also creates an incentive for cheating. This article examines legal strategies that game developers can employ to counter cheating software. The sale of cheating software can be a lucrative industry, with one group generating over $70 million from selling cheats for a mobile game. Cheating software compromises the competitive integrity of games, leading to player dissatisfaction and potential revenue loss for developers. While game developers typically ban accounts of known cheaters, the effectiveness of this approach is limited and relies on detecting cheating software. Most games use cheat-detection software, but these programs have limitations, and cheat developers continually adapt to evade detection. This creates an arms race between game developers and cheat developers, often leaving developers at a disadvantage. In recent years, game developers have turned to copyright law for protection, filing suits against cheat developers under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA, particularly sections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b), has been used to protect against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Game developers argue that their anti-cheat programs are technological measures that effectively control access to their games, and cheating software is designed to circumvent these measures. Several high-profile cases have been filed under the DMCA, including Bungie, Inc. v. Aimjunkies.com and Activision Publishing, Inc. v. EngineOwning UG. Although these cases have not gone to trial, they demonstrate the potential for copyright law to be used as a tool against cheating. One notable case, MDY v. Blizzard, resulted in a $6.5 million award for the game developer due to a DMCA violation. The court ruled that the cheating software bypassed Blizzard's anti-cheat program, Warden, which controlled access to the game's dynamic nonliteral elements. However, the court also noted that the use of cheating software was not copyright infringement under section 1201(b)(1). The DMCA provides an exception for reverse engineering for the purpose of achieving interoperability, which could potentially be used as a defense by cheat developers. To ensure access to section 1201 protection, game developers can use anti-cheat software that controls access to both online and offline elements of the game. Programs like Denuvo, which encrypt and obfuscate local files, can verify the legitimacy of a game before launch. By creating a first layer of access control, cheat developers must also develop tools capable of being used for piracy, which may run afoul of certain interpretations. If section 1201 protection proves insufficient, game developers have other fallback options, including trademark infringement and breach of contract claims. The threat of litigation under section 1201 has been enough to deter some cheat developers, but the strength of this provision remains uncertain without further court decisions.