The high-profile video game scam maker had to pay more than $14 million in restitution to Activision and hand over its domain name.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has granted Activision’s motion to infringe a civil injunction against EngineOwning, which sells cheats for several Call of Duty games as well as Counter-Strike, Battlefield and Titanfall. Activision was awarded $14,465,600 in statutory damages and $292,912 in attorney’s fees, and the court granted a permanent injunction enjoining EngineOwning’s “unlawful conduct” and transferring its www.EngineOwning.to domain name to Activision.
Activision successfully argued that EngineOwning continued to circumvent its security systems and sell rogue software in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It called for a minimum of $200 in statutory damages under the DMCA, multiplied by the total number of downloads of the rogue software in the United States (72,328), for a total of $14,465,600. The court considered the request “reasonable” under the circumstances.
In February 2023, a judge ruled that EngineOwning must pay Activision $3 million in damages after Activision sued high-profile publishers for using Warzone cheats. But EngineOwning continued to operate, selling cheats for the 2023 Call of Duty game Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. Activision then continued its protracted battle with the cheater, which resulted in this decision.
There are now questions about whether Activision will see any of the money it owes EngineOwning, or its ability to claim ownership of the website. At the time of this article’s publication, cheats and HWID cheats are available from EngineOwning operating outside of the United States.
Of course, competitive multiplayer video games have endured the problem of cheating for decades, and Call of Duty in particular has a problem with cheating and hacking, especially the battle royale Warzone free download for PC. Activision and other video game publishers are fighting an uphill battle in the war against cheaters, but the Call of Duty company will be hoping that decisions like this act as a meaningful deterrent as it prepares to release Black Ops 6 later this year.
Night, Activision he tweeted To say that all accounts found to be engaging in any kind of escalating behavior in Multiplayer or Warzone ranked Play will have their SR reset and removed from the Leaderboards prior to the start of Season 4. Activision continued: “Additionally, as previously announced, accounts that increase their progress in Ranked Play will be permanently restricted from accessing the Ranked Play modes in Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone.”
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.