Epic Games Sends Legal Action Against Cheaters, Slaps 14-Year Old With Lawsuit

Get ready for a legal minefield, folks. Earlier, it was made known that Fortnite was not just banning cheaters, but also sending them to court. The concept of legal action against cheaters is not unprecedented, as Riot Games won a lawsuit against a cheat-making organization earlier this year.

However, individually going after people is something that is much more rare when gaming companies go against cheaters and hackers. And sometimes, that can backfire on a company - especially when it was found out that one of the cheaters is a 14-year old boy.

Cue the WutFace.

Typically speaking, minors are usually shielded from legal action. The mother of the minor has released a letter, that we'll sum it up here.

• Fortnite requires parental consent for minors, but she never gave consent for her child to play Fortnite.
• Epic Games is stating that cheaters have given them a loss of profits, but Fornite's Battle Royale mode is free. Epic Games would have to certify that this cheating directly caused a "Mass profit loss"
• Epic Games states that the minor in question created the cheating software, but the minor's mother asserts that he merely downloaded it as a user.
• By releasing the minor's name, Epic Games has violated Delaware release-of-information laws pertaining to minors.
• Epic Games is not going after websites providing the cheating software (As Riot Games did), and is "using a 14 year-old child as a scapegoat."

Despite these points, Epic Games has released a statement, provided by Kotaku, that seems to disregard the fact that the person served with a lawsuit is 14 years old.

“This particular lawsuit arose as a result of the defendant filing a DMCA counterclaim to a takedown notice on a YouTube video that exposed and promoted Fortnite Battle Royale cheats and exploits. Under these circumstances, the law requires that we file suit or drop the claim. Epic is not okay with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age. As stated previously, we take cheating seriously, and we’ll pursue all available options to make sure our games are fun, fair, and competitive for players.”

This is definitely one heck of a lawsuit. My personal thoughts - the case is going to get dismissed by whichever judge hears it. What do you think?