Evony Hacker Slapped With $300,000 Judgment

[Tom Goldman]

Evony Hacker Slapped With $300,000 Judgment

Crime doesn't pay, especially when it involves hacking MMOs.

Hacking MMOs these days, no matter how big or small, just isn't a great idea. A hacker that worked his magic on Evony LLC's Evony is now facing a $300,000 bill after the company filed a lawsuit against him and he failed to mount any sort of case.

23-year old Philip James Holland created a bot that automatically played Evony for its users, and he also ran an independent Evony server, which Evony LLC claims infringes on its copyrights and trademarks. While Evony LLC once sought $825,000 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108556-Evony-Puts-the-Squeeze-on-Bot-Maker] from Holland, U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry ruled this week that some of the company's charges overlapped, hence the reduced amount.

Holland also has to pay any "reasonable costs and fees" that Evony LLC had to put out for the lawsuit. Unless Holland has a box of money stashed under his floorboards, he probably won't be able to pay. He said he couldn't afford a lawyer, showed up to court in "sweats," and says he's "barely surviving" off of the income he made from his illegitimate Evony activities.

Legally, none of that matters. If you mess with a company's intellectual property, expect to pay big time. Holland can at least take solace in the fact that he's not facing a bigger judgment, as with the $88 million awarded to Blizzard [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102805-Blizzard-Squeezes-88-Million-From-Private-Server-Owner] from a World of Warcraft private server owner. Still, $300,000 might be quite a lot for someone whose court attire doubles as workout gear, as it would be for any non-billionaire.

Source: Kotaku [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11091/1136138-55.stm]


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[imnot]

Phhh, THey make stupid adverts, they deserve it

 

[RandallJohn]

"You had better pay up, my Lord."

 

[Aeshi]

Pretty odd considering Evony is supposed to contain Spyware.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

While he certainly should be punished, even $300,000 seems a tad steep for these crimes. Wouldn't, to the average hacker non-billionaire, a fine of say $20,000 - $50,000 would be well within the realms of an effective dissuasion. They're not going to see this money and it sounds as though the $300,000 could be enough to ruin a good proportion of his life. I don't know if the punishment here fits the crime.

Also Evony is cancerous bilge.

 

[kasperbbs]

Might as well give him a 20 million dollar fine, unless he wins a lottery i don`t see how he could come up with this kind cash.

 

[icyneesan]

Isn't Evony like a facebook game? All I remember this game for is the tasteless ads you see on websites.

Guy should probably flee to Cuba or somewhere

 

[Arachon]

300,000? Ridiculous, all he did was basically charge for helping players cheat in their game. Yes, he deserve a fine, but definitely not *that* much.

Besides, I really don't see how any of this makes him a hacker...

 

[jawakiller]

People still play that shit!
Thats just messed up. I played that fuck up once (yes, because of the ad) and I hated it... Coming from a "strategy person." They really know how to run a good marketing campaign, they just don't know how to make a fun game.

Sorry if my ramblings are offensive but I was really annoyed when I actually played the game.
http://www.cracked.com/funny-4570-evony/
if you don't believe me.

 

[SinisterGehe]

300,000? Ridiculous, all he did was basically charge for helping players cheat in their game. Yes, he deserve a fine, but definitely not *that* much.

Besides, I really don't see how any of this makes him a hacker...

I don't know the case, but I assume he probably sold the program and as he mentioned he made money with the private Evony server of hes, those are quite serious charges to begin with.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

While he certainly should be punished, even $300,000 seems a tad steep for these crimes. Wouldn't, to the average hacker non-billionaire, a fine of say $20,000 - $50,000 would be well within the realms of an effective dissuasion. They're not going to see this money and it sounds as though the $300,000 could be enough to ruin a good proportion of his life. I don't know if the punishment here fits the crime.

Also Evony is cancerous bilge.

And do you expect the company to state "No wait, $300,000 is a bit to much. We'll take $50,000." No, they didn't make the judgement, the court did. $300,000 is a lot, but if it does "ruin his life", perhaps it will deter other people who want to hack an MMO. It just seems common sense not to mess with MMOs.

 

[Lawyer105]

It's hardly a big deal. If he's that badly off, he can just declare bankruptcy and the whole thing (and any other debts he's incurred!) just goes away

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

While he certainly should be punished, even $300,000 seems a tad steep for these crimes. Wouldn't, to the average hacker non-billionaire, a fine of say $20,000 - $50,000 would be well within the realms of an effective dissuasion. They're not going to see this money and it sounds as though the $300,000 could be enough to ruin a good proportion of his life. I don't know if the punishment here fits the crime.

Also Evony is cancerous bilge.

And do you expect the company to state "No wait, $300,000 is a bit to much. We'll take $50,000." No, they didn't make the judgement, the court did. $300,000 is a lot, but if it does "ruin his life", perhaps it will deter other people who want to hack an MMO. It just seems common sense not to mess with MMOs.

I'm saying $50,000 would have been an effective deterrent, and the court should have made a more just judgement and not let Evony LLC take the helm of dictating their view of an appropriate punishment. Most punishments should not financially cripple you but it seems that this has become the de facto position, the law allows the defendant to take, on even the most petty crimes. The punishment should reflect the size of the operation as it does with more serious crime.

 

[robert022614]

The lesson is dont play or be associated in any way with Evony whose reputation is far more than enough evidence to not be on their side regardless of the situation.

 

[Enkidu88]

This is what the Appellate court is for

 

[Starke]

While he certainly should be punished, even $300,000 seems a tad steep for these crimes. Wouldn't, to the average hacker non-billionaire, a fine of say $20,000 - $50,000 would be well within the realms of an effective dissuasion. They're not going to see this money and it sounds as though the $300,000 could be enough to ruin a good proportion of his life. I don't know if the punishment here fits the crime.

Also Evony is cancerous bilge.

Except, you know it's not punishment. At least not in the criminal way. This is what's called a summary judgment. It means that you didn't contest what the other guy was saying and you let them decide for you, what they wanted. This is why you shouldn't ignore summons.

This is what the Appellate court is for

Yeah, except you really can't appeal a summary judgment. I mean he basically refused mount any response to the claims, and decided to ignore the court case, and this is the result. He's fucked.

 

[Starke]

Yikes...

Well, that's the lesson there. Don't cheat. It has far reaching consequences. :3

No, the lesson is, if you get sued by someone, you need to actually participate in the case, because if you don't, the person/company/lunatic fringe element suing you basically gets to have what they want.

A number like 300k is pretty BS, but it was a negotiating stance to try to force the guy to the table. Except, he decided to fuck around and ignore them.

Now, a summary judgment is where someone files a lawsuit and the other party doesn't respond at all. If he'd even simply shown up in court, and tried to deal with the charges on his own, without legal council there's no way the judge would have issued this order no matter how well the Evony lawyers made their case. In fact it's pretty standard procedure during the proceedings to assess an individual's resources before issuing judgments like this. He might have gotten slapped with 60k at worst, but probably far less if his financial situation was as dire as he claimed. But, because he didn't show up, didn't participate, Evony LLC basically got everything they asked for.

And you can tell they were full of shit because the judge reduced their request for damages. That almost never happens in a summary judgment unless the suit is seriously flawed.

 

[FoolKiller]

Hmm... your own server. If you don't make any money, that should be allowed so you can enjoy the game sans upgrades. But he was an idiot to sell his bots.

 

[Baresark]

That price is ridiculous. They didn't lose that much money from his activities. Sounds like he is expected to pay for the next couple of rounds of server maintenance. I feel for the guy.

This is why IP shit is bull. If no one can see a problem with this, I feel sorry for you. IF you get into a car accident and it's your fault, you are responsible for buying the other person a new car. If you rob a bank, your punishment is decided based on whether you shot anyone, killed anyone, and how much money you stole. There is a scale that crimes follow, but $825k was just an arbitrary number, as is $300k. What a broken system.