Evony Hacker Slapped With $300,000 Judgment

[nugarin]

Ah, they're going for the "lets force cheaters to suicide approach"... cause that's where this will end up.

All he has to do is declare himself bankrupt. Problem solved. Only drawback will be with getting loans and ban on running a business for some years.

 

[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.

Are you certain that he lost to a motion for summary judgment? It appears that he didn't bother to file an answer to the complaint. That usually results in a motion for default judgment, not summary judgment.

And why do you think there's no appeal from a summary judgment? A summary judgment can most certainly be appealed. As, too, can a default judgment. I can't think of a single ruling by a lower court which can't be appealed to a higher court.

Yeah, my apologies. I should have been saying "default" all this time, not summary.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Because an indigent defendant is entitled to a public defender only in criminal matters. This isn't a criminal matter. It's a civil matter.

As I mentioned above I had been confused about where the divide was. Given the large amount of money involved, and the accusations of hacking, I'm actually rather surprised it wasn't a criminal case.

 

[JDKJ]

Because an indigent defendant is entitled to a public defender only in criminal matters. This isn't a criminal matter. It's a civil matter.

As I mentioned above I had been confused about where the divide was. Given the large amount of money involved, and the accusations of hacking, I'm actually rather surprised it wasn't a criminal case.

Just look for one of the parties being "The State of [Blank]" or "U.S. Department of Justice" or some other government body of the sort. If you can't find the government among any of the parties, then it can't be a criminal prosecution. Only the government can prosecute a criminal case. A purely private entity or individual can't file criminal charges. So, if all you can find are private parties, then it's gotta be a civil matter.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

Why should we factor whether punishments will financially cripple a person or not? Justice is supposed to be blind. I hate Evony as much as most other people, but the charges are serious. If the court finds Evony's claims to be unsubstantiated then they will deal with it, but I don't think they should be soft just because punishing him will financially cripple him. He stole from the company, he should suffer the punishment.

~hammerskeyboarddesponantly~

You've got me wrong, I don't mean the court should have diluted the sentencing because of who is was or his financial background, but on the grounds of the crime itself and the scale of the crime. $300,000 is enough to financially cripple most decent earning Americans, so if the sentence is such that the majority of the continent couldn't pay it off for the vast proportion of their lives it might be quite an extreme sentence.

I've since been told he didn't respond to the summons however. While I think the "No defense equates to unjust punishment" argument falls a bit flat, I certainly think the court did the right thing at least making some adjustment to Evony LLCs obscene demands.

To reaffirm my position, I believe that $50,000 would be enough to deter well in excess of half of the American public from attempting to undermine fair usage laws on this scale. If it isn't, surely they're expecting to make a significant amount more from it (say, subverting WoW subscriptions and providing an equal and botted service for free, to millions). If they are, then that sentence should reflect the magnitude of the crime.

 

[HeySeansOnline]

So a sight with ads, that objectify women, for a game that doesn't constitute any attention is suing a man for three hundred thousand. I really can't believe this, yes he is legally at fault, but three hundred thousand seems much to harsh. There's no way they will ever see that unless he ruins his life forever with debt, it just seems like abuse of the legal system to me.

Admittedly though it is his fault for not participating, and the "I can't afford a lawyer." thing doesn't work when the state will provide you one. Now it seems his only option left is bankruptcy.

 

[Luthir Fontaine]

Good! More mmos need to do this

 

[The Funslinger]

But... but Evony is shit! Hell, it knows it's so terrible and unappealing that it goes straight for the scantily clad women! Why would someone bother hacking it?

Thoughts like this go through my head a lot. I see a banner advertising some crappy MMO thrown together in about five minutes that lasts about five months before being replaced by the next generation of crappy MMOs thrown together in about five minutes. I just think to myself, God, do these actually have online communities!?!

 

[JDKJ]

Why should we factor whether punishments will financially cripple a person or not? Justice is supposed to be blind. I hate Evony as much as most other people, but the charges are serious. If the court finds Evony's claims to be unsubstantiated then they will deal with it, but I don't think they should be soft just because punishing him will financially cripple him. He stole from the company, he should suffer the punishment.

~hammerskeyboarddesponantly~

You've got me wrong, I don't mean the court should have diluted the sentencing because of who is was or his financial background, but on the grounds of the crime itself and the scale of the crime. $300,000 is enough to financially cripple most decent earning Americans, so if the sentence is such that the majority of the continent couldn't pay it off for the vast proportion of their lives it might be quite an extreme sentence.

I've since been told he didn't respond to the summons however. While I think the "No defense equates to unjust punishment" argument falls a bit flat, I certainly think the court did the right thing at least making some adjustment to Evony LLCs obscene demands.

To reaffirm my position, I believe that $50,000 would be enough to deter well in excess of half of the American public from attempting to undermine fair usage laws on this scale. If it isn't, surely they're expecting to make a significant amount more from it (say, subverting WoW subscriptions and providing an equal and botted service for free, to millions). If they are, then that sentence should reflect the magnitude of the crime.

Under the U.S. Copyright Act, the maximum penalty for each act of infringment is $150,000. It don't take too much to rack up a whopping penalty, particularly because most infringers are serial infringers with multiple instances of infringement under their belts. It may seem like a hefty price to pay, but if you consider that the guy selling those bootleg CDs and DVDs on a New York City sidewalk can easily net several hundred thousand dollars a year (he's got next to nothing in production costs or overhead, making pretty much everything he grosses pure profit), then it does make some sense to stick it to him as hard as possible. As for the Little League bootlegger who barely nets $50,000 a year, I guess the moral for him is that if you're gonna get stuck for stealing livestock, then don't steal a sheep. Make the reward justify the risk and steal a whole cow, instead.

And even the possibilty of hefty penalties doesn't seem to have much deterrent effect. You can walk the entire length of Canal Street through Chinatown and you'd be lucky to find anyone selling a product that isn't a knock-off or a bootleg.

 

[justnotcricket]

"You had better pay up, my Lord."

God help me, but I laughed so hard when I saw this =P So true...

I too think that $300,000 is pretty steep for such a small-time idiot, but at least it might act as a deterrent to cheaters in other games? I'm guessing something else will probably be sorted out, cos the company's got to know they're *never* getting that much money off this guy.

'Struggling' eh? Perhaps that'll teach you to go get a legal job like the rest of us

 

[Retosa]

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.

Why should we factor whether punishments will financially cripple a person or not? Justice is supposed to be blind. I hate Evony as much as most other people, but the charges are serious. If the court finds Evony's claims to be unsubstantiated then they will deal with it, but I don't think they should be soft just because punishing him will financially cripple him. He stole from the company, he should suffer the punishment.

This has nothing to do with justice, this is a civil matter not a criminal matter. This isn't about stealing, and I'm sick of people blindly claiming "guy hacked and made private server and bots, he's stealing!" This is a fallacy for multiple reasons.

First, Evony free, creating a private server for a free game takes nothing away from them (except away from the money they gain for their illegal activities). Second, he made a bit of money selling bots, this is very SLIGHTLY harmful to their game. However, considering the bots are more likely to be used on the private server, this still doesn't really matter at all. For my third and final point, you can NOT claim pirating (private MMO servers are a 'type' of pirating) is stealing, you can't claim that the people who jumped on the free game bandwagon would've put out money for your product. Only a percentage of those people would do that, and some of the people that jump onto the free game bandwagon buy it (after the fact). In terms of private servers, you sometimes see people who play both the paid version AND the free version.

Oh a scum sucking lecher is getting what he deserves for making bots for games? Well I can't actually care for this guy at all. In fact I hope it happens to more people who make bots and cheats for games.

If it ruins his life so much the better. Bot makers and cheat makers are people who need to be dealt with in some way.

If he had a real job he can probably pay it off in some years.

Though it might be true that the company is demanding a bit too much. Still he's one of those bot makers and they just ruin MMORPGs.

you are cold. Messing with a company is essentially worse than acts that put lives in danger? yeah right..

Let's figure out how many years it would take for someone who makes $70,000 annually (well above the poverty line, and actually pretty well off for middle class standards) to pay off a debt like that.

Taxes take approximately 40% of that (can be lower or higher depending on where you live).

So, 70,000* 0.6 = 42,000 take home.
Divide into 24 for two payments per month to make shit easy.
1750 twice a month.

I dunno about where you guys live, but where I currently live, a 1 bedroom apartment can cost up to $1200, so we'll go with that, instantly cutting him down to $550 and $1750, so 2300 per month after rent.

Food, we'll go with an easy and cheap 300/month. Most people spend a bit more (eating out, etc), but 300/month is doable.

Car insurance, Car payments, phone, internet, electricity, gas, water, we'll round this to 550/month assuming he's cheap.

So, he's got 1450/month left for entertainment purposes, and for paying off a whopping $300,000 bill. We'll give him 250 for his own entertainment a month, and assume he's going to pump the last 1200 into the $300,000 bill for the rest of his life (or until paid off), let's see how many years this would take.

1200*12 = 14,400
300,000/14,400 = 20.83(repeating)
So, 21 years later he's finally paid it off, assuming no interest.

And that's if he's well off and could have AFFORDED a lawyer.
This guy probably makes $20,000 a year or less.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

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

It's some crappy Age of Empires rip off thing. Those adds sure do express the concept of the game....

 

[Plucky]

Seems a bit hypacritical, i mean didnt Evony steal images from other MMO ads and even decieved their consumers with scantlier clad adverts as time went by?

 

[crystalsnow]

This guy should turn around and sue Evony for the crime of making a terrible game and using porn to advertise it.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Let it be a lesson to all hackers

 

[mireko]

Evony, and IIIIIIBORYYY~

[sub]I feel unclean now.[/sub]

 

[War Pony]

Evony, and IIIIIIBORYYY~

[sub]I feel unclean now.[/sub]

As you should.

But still I laughed.

 

[Zefar]

Sir,you are a real asshole.

And? :/ I pair him up with cheaters, cheat makers and bot makers. I really can't give them any sympathy. Doesn't matter what they've done. If someone sue them too oblivion it only makes me happy.

you are cold. Messing with a company is essentially worse than acts that put lives in danger? yeah right..

So why should I even remotely care about one guy I've never met in my entire life? Specially one that makes bot programs for games? Sure it might only been for that Evony but he might make it for others as well.

Retosa: $1200 for a single apartment? Holy hell it's expensive over there. Apartments here in Sweden that is a single person cost around $150 to $200. An apartment fit for 2-3 might be around $350 to $400.

 

[Nurb]

>He used a bot
>They called it Hacking
>My fucking face

What the hell! Bots aren't HACKING, they just break the EULA, thousands of people use them, and hosting a private server is barely a crime if he doesn't charge for it... so he's slapped with a $300,000 judgement that the company won't even see from a 23 year old, basically making it life-long punishment if they garnish wages until he retires, all over piddly shit!

I'm all for companies trying to protect their IP, but this is too much and he wasn't hacking anything, and 300 Grand? It might as well be a million because no one in their 20's can pay that kind of fine.

So no, fuck this company. I didn't even know about their damn game before this news post, so the bright side is they'll probably be closed in a few years which will end his payments.

Isn't anyone pissed that knowing anything about computers beyond browsing the net and clicking "next" on program installations is considered "Hacking?" I'll bet all the botters out there will be surprised to know they're "hacking" the game servers! Hell I used a bot a few times in WoW and SWG... I had no idea breaking game rules was a life ruining act.

Let it be a lesson to all hackers

Bots, exploits, and hosting private servers are not hacking

 

[Korusho]

The reason it was such a large suit was, honestly, because they could. The judge reduced it to the amount he could within reason but sadly the law is law. He didn't defend himself activly, probably couldn't anyways, and was basically strong armed in a legal system that favors the wealthy.

I don't support his actions, hell I don't support Evony, it is another mind sucking internet game that preys on people who don't understand what it actually is, but as it has been said...

Seriously, he could have used his abilities for bigger fish or even made an Evony clone and made legit money off of that.

Opinions aside, this young person is screwed for life.