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 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 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: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via Kotaku
