Evony Hacker Slapped With $300,000 Judgment

[Sewer Rat]

Wait... People actually play Evony? Huh... But damn, that's a steep bill for hacking a free online game.

 

[Quaidis]

Funny, coming from the game company that illegally used photo-shopped shots of magazine models for their adverts without the models' expressed permission.

 

[KelThuzad0398]

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.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Hell, Runescape has far more private servers and botters but I dont see them getting slapped with such huge fines. In fact, one private server, made in 2008 and ran by a 16 year old kid, he made about ~$50,000 income from stolen property. I dont think its even been shut down yet either.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

Someone hacked Evony? This man deserves a medal.

 

[Ben Legend]

Serves you right. Nobody should be entitled to anything for free. In this case, sponging of someone else's hard work.

 

[Starke]

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.

Except he did show up in court.

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.

As we can see he showed up despite not having a lawyer and pretty much told them "I have no way to defend myself because I'm piss broke and my illegal activities were barely keeping me above homelessness"

So yeah, kinda makes the rest of what you said moot.

Except he didn't come into court and dispute their claims, he didn't say "I didn't think I did anything wrong" he didn't say "I thought what I was doing was legal", he said he was not contesting their claims and threw himself on the court's mercy, which is, quite frankly, moronic.

 

[rsvp42]

Evony? Really? I mean, I suppose if you're going to run a scam, you should do it on some dingy stepchild of a game like that, but $300,000 fine? I think having to spend any amount of time in that game would be punishment enough. I doubt the IP is even worth that much. Etc, so on and so forth. It's a crap game is the idea I'm going for.

 

[Zefar]

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.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

i think he deserves everything he gets.

Yikes...

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

no, the lesson is, dont get caught.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Evony? Really? *SNIP* It's a crap game is the idea I'm going for.

yh i got that in the first two words of your post.

but i do agree with you.

 

[AsurasFinest]

Isn't this the same company that tried to sue people for "defamation" as they saw it against them, when it was brought up that they might be using spyware in their game

The same company that aggressively puts adds on EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE
Yeah screw these guys

 

[ThisIsSnake]

This needs to happen way more often

 

[SextusMaximus]

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

 

[JDKJ]

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.

 

[twiceworn]

This is total BS he is never going to be able to pay this so it really isnt an issue, and he can always leave the country anyway making it even more irelevant, its not even a good way of stoping future hackers as the threat is that you are going to be asked for some impossible shit that you simply cant give making it no punishemt at all
i refere you to this : http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/8021-Critical-Miss-29

oh and if they started docking wages he can stop working and go on welfare so THREE TIMES BULSHIT

 

[JDKJ]

I don't understand why he didn't have a public defender.

Running an unauthorized server is complete idiocy but the amount he owes is equally stupid. Whatever money he brought in, before expenses, should be given to Evony and I don't see anything wrong with a fine to reflect hacking them and exploiting their source code, but 300k is ridiculous.

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.

 

[ALPHATT]

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..

 

[Dfskelleton]

People actually play Evony? I thought everyone just made fun of it because of the stupid advertisements.
Not worth getting fined $300,000 over a piece of crap game developed and advertised by a bunch of idiot losers.

 

[Antari]

This judge is about as smart as the "hacker". Oh and since he got caught about the only title hes in line for is worst hacker ever.