Epic Games is suing an Australian for allegedly selling hacked Epic accounts as well as cheats for Fortnite. The Australian Federal Court has since frozen their assets and put a interlocutory injunction into effect.
Epic begins proceedings against Australian man
Epic began proceedings against the West Australian man (who uses the pseudonym Blaze or BlazeFN) for selling ‘BlazeFN’ branded products that included cheat software for Fortnite’s Online Mode, as well as login credentials for Epic Accounts that had been compromised.
“A buyer of login credentials for the Compromised Accounts can access that relevant account and transfer virtual items (particularly rare virtual items) from the Compromised Account to their regular Epic Account, using a gifting function,” the documents read.
Epic is also claiming that Blaze infringed upon copyright by making a copy of “a substantial part of one or more of the Fortnite Works… in material form in Australia” as well as allowing customers to reproduce and copy these works.
In practice this means that the cheats involved copying Fortnite Core, Local Library and Server-Side Library files into RAM to work. This is considered a breach of the End-user license agreement (EULA) terms of service.
Epic is also alleging that Blaze also “recruited, employed and directed other people” to develop, sell and distribute the BlazeFN products.
According to the filings the accounts and cheat mods were sold via several online stores. The initial listing date for these products are listed as ‘unknown’ in court documents but they are said to have been sold from “at least” May 2020.
What did the cheats do?
According to court documents the BlazeFN cheats provided players with access to unauthorised and restricted features in the Online Mode of Fortnite, such as:
- Increased weapon accuracy or ‘softaim’
- Aimbot, allowing 100 per cent weapon accuracy
- Visual ESP, allowing players to clock other players more easily
- The ability to perceive the locations of loot easier
PayPal transactions from the court documents also reveal some of these purchases.
At least four players with Australian Epic accounts are said to have used BlazeFN cheats in Online Mode. However, Blaze is apparently unable to provide exact numbers on how many have been sold within Australia.
The Federal Court has ordered that Blaze not tamper with or destroy any computers, hard drives or other electronic devices and documents related to the case. Independent computer experts have also been directed to make copies of listed things copied during the execution of search orders.
Their assets, amounting to $182,483, have also been frozen by the Federal Court. This includes the above PayPal account that is said to be related to the BlazeFN transactions.
A case management hearing will be heard by the Federal Court on May 19. Gizmodo Australia has reached out to Epic Games for comment.
Last month the Federal Court suspended Epic Games’ case against Apple in Australia. Epic is currently appealing this decision and the ACCC has requested that it appear as a non-party at the appeal hearing.