Any lawyers/gamers/coders - DS created a cheat for a computer game that makes game $$ - now made it open source; could he/we be sued??

[Buggeration65]

My ds, 15, loves coding and playing computer games.

He created a 'cheat' (think that is the right term) for a moderately popular game that allowed him to make unlimited amounts of the currency used in the game. The game makers also sell this game currency for actual money.

As well as using this cheat himself, he sold the cheat to a small number of people, some of whom copied it and sold it to a few others. I asked him if this was legally ok but he says lots of people make game cheats and it's not illegal. Plus given only a tiny handful of people would know about or be using the cheat it didn't seem something the company would care about.

However, as it's the biggest thing he's coded and he no longer plays the game, he's decided to make the cheat open source. He says it's good practice to share stuff you've coded with the open source community - which I can see it probably is in principle, but this??

I'm worried he now risks being sued by the makers of the game as presumably now an unlimited number of people can find out about and use what he created and, and it undermines their business model.

I'm worried for his legal position and also ours, as he's 15. Does this mean we'd be financially responsible for any damages? Could he get sued?

He's furious with me for suggesting this is a bad idea and we should check the legality of this - he says he's checked and millions of people use game cheats and there's nothing illegal about it. But he's a 15-year-old (probably autistic) nerd not a lawyer!

Any actual lawyers or IT people or gamers know if this is legally risky please? I understand he's proud of his coding and wants to share it with the coding community, but am not sure this is the best piece to be sharing!

Anyone able to help?

A big company can sue you, knowing you can't match their hotshot lawyers. Do you want to risk it in court? Especially if it's a US company.

So he's hacked the game to allow the generation of in game currency, which you usually have to buy? Has he protected his ip by using a vpn etc? Most people who are able to hack games are usually able to cover their tracks, which is why most don't ever get sued. The minimum that could happen is that they discover him and others are using this hack and they bar them from the game, the worst that could happen could be legal action. It all depends on how much clout the devs have and if he can even be traced.

An American company sued a friend claiming that they had used the company's intellectual property in their own published work. Friend had to pay a lawyer many £1000s to prove they did this work before the Americans.

@SpaceshiptoMars

A big company can sue you, knowing you can't match their hotshot lawyers. Do you want to risk it in court? Especially if it's a US company.

No, I absolutely don't want to risk it! But ds swears it is no risk.

Is it something like the BYOND forum where people share all that stuff and donate to each other? I think that is OK and expected

Don't know what that is so don't know... But people were prepared to pay him quite a lot to buy this cheat before he made it open source - basically a magic money machine.

His coding skills are in advance of his understanding of business law.

You need to consult a criminal lawyer really. At the very least they could sue him for financial loss, that amount would depend on how big the game is, whether its operated by a couple of people or is owned by stakeholders. You need a lawyer to determine whether its a financial crime or something that could result in jail time.

Get him to email in the company, they probably have a place to report vulnerabilities and bugs. He helps solve a problem for a big gaming company vs the drama that will come with the open source (and they will be able to close down the cheat when he makes it open source anyway)

@Pixiedust1234

You need to consult a criminal lawyer really. At the very least they could sue him for financial loss, that amount would depend on how big the game is, whether its operated by a couple of people or is owned by stakeholders. You need a lawyer to determine whether its a financial crime or something that could result in jail time.

Eek. That doesn't sound good.

No lawyer would look at this and say: fine, go ahead. High on list of skills for legal practitioners is arse covering and risk aversion.

And I mean it does happen:

www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-01-05-activision-files-lawsuit-against-call-of-duty-cheat-site

www.gameinformer.com/interview/2021/08/03/bungie-and-ubisoft-lawsuit-against-cheat-seller-explained

I would guess that making it open-source, and not making a profit himself will massively reduce the chances of legal action (turning a blind eye to the money he's made so far). And not having deep pockets means they're not likely to chase him - more likely any website publishing it.

But there is a non-zero risk I reckon.

This might not be a great metaphor, as I’m struggling to think of one but basically he has created a way to ‘steal’ items which he has then sold on (presumably for money?). He now wants to show people how to steal for themselves, albeit not for money.

He is not wrong when he says these things are common in gaming. It still is what it is though. Game developers do usually pursue this as it hurts their game in several ways - most obviously, a loss of income to them (especially if the game is low cost or free to play, the bulk of the income will be in-game transactions like this currency) and also potentially in removing of the challenge of the game (eg currency might also be earned through gaining lots of XP, doing challenges etc so being able to generate your own currency removes the need or enjoyment of taking on those challenges).

He is also right to say that open source code is popular and sharing any developments is usually received well.

None of this makes any of what he is doing legal. It sounds like he is an enthusiastic and capable coder, that is overstating the benefits and massively understating or underestimating the issues here. Which is unsurprising given his enthusiasm and his age! He might want to do what he sees other people doing, but again, this doesn’t in any way make it legal.

In my mind, I would just be pleased no one seems to have realised or cared enough before now and not draw more attention to it. Maybe he could join an organised hackathon/dev challenge or something like that instead

Hmm, I said usually pursue but don’t have hard numbers - so let’s say it’s a relatively regular topic in which developers pursue creators of cheats/exploits when they come to light. Ranging from banning to legal action.

I have a relative who hacked and used servers of a big company. You would usually pay for the server space through the company.
They discovered it and started legal action for almost £400,000.
Thankfully because of his autism he was deemed to not be able to understand consequences of his actions, so they dropped the legal action and gave him a life time ban of all their products!