Fortnite ends legendary lawsuit against 14-year-old cheater whom Mommy was defending

 In 2017, Epic sued a 14-year-old who showed cheats for the then completely new game " Fortnite: Battle Royale " on YouTube. His mother defended the teenager that Epic was trying to make her son a scapegoat. Only now, more than 3 years later, was the case settled. Epic and the family have come to an agreement.

That's the case: In October 2017, Epic Games took action against people who uploaded videos to YouTube. Fortnite: Battle Royale cheats were shown in the videos. Epic Games wanted to take the videos from YouTube via copyright strikes. But two users refused to take the videos offline. Epic Games then filed a lawsuit against them: They wanted $ 150,000 in damages from them.

In one case, it turned out that the YouTuber was a 14-year-old. He is said to have been banned from Fortnite at least 14 times, but just kept going. He uploaded videos of himself playing Fortnite using a “wallhack” and an “aimot” cheat.

Epic Games only learned in the context of the lawsuit that the cheater was a 14-year-old, but proceeded with the lawsuit unmoved.

Mother said: Epic make her son a scapegoat

What did the mother say then? The boy's mother made an appeal to the court in November 2017 . She said her son was just a scapegoat here. He didn't even make the software himself, just downloaded it.

Epic Games only wanted to distract from their own problems with the lawsuit. In any case, she did not consent to her underage son playing Fortnite.

This is what the son said: The son himself said: He would not have cheated at all, just “modded”. And modding would not be against the rules of YouTube. Therefore, he did not see at all that he had to take the videos off the network.

He used the hashtag #FuckUEpicGames in a video.

That made the case so legendary: The lawsuit against the 14-year-old was apparently the first case in which someone was only sued for cheating. In other cases, the defendants developed or sold the cheats themselves, as an expert said at the time.

The young age of the cheater and the statements of the mother contributed to the level of awareness of the lawsuit. In addition, the lawsuit is now almost as old as Fortnite: Battle Royale itself.

After more than 3 years, Epic reaches an agreement with the 14-year-old cheater

This is how the case went: In fact, the case dragged on forever. The court did not want to dismiss the case. At a certain point, however, the mother and the defendant no longer commented on the allegations. As a result, Epic urged the court to issue a default judgment. The court contradicted this, however, because the defendant underage needed legal representation. So Epic had to make more requests. That dragged the case on for years.

Only now has Epic Games reached an agreement with the defendant. But it is said that the agreement should remain "confidential" because the defendant is not yet 18 years old and should be protected.

Epic Games said in a statement to the court (via torrentfreak ): "In this case, the defendant's personal rights outweigh the public interest."

Publication of the judgment could cause unfair harm to the juvenile.

The boy was originally sued for $ 150,000 in damages, but it can be assumed that the settlement was reached with a lower payment. Epic had indicated they didn't want to ruin anyone, just stop cheating in Fortnite.

In the years that followed, Epic Games set other examples against cheaters. In 2019, the professional YouTuber FaZe Jarvis was banned from Fortnite for life and a career ended practically overnight.