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Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, is now going after two YouTubers — one with more than 1.7 million subscribers — alleging they used aimbots to hack the game and sold their cheats to others for as much as $300.
Brandon Lucas, operator of the “Golden Modz” YouTube channel, and Colton Conter, host of Exentric, are named in the complaint filed Oct. 10 in federal court in North Carolina, where Epic Games is based. The lawsuit (first reported by TorrentFreak) says both promoted hacks that gave players “magical powers” and laughed about the unfair competitive advantages they got in the popular battle royale shooter. Lucas’ channel, which also deals in Grand Theft Auto 5 and Call of Duty modding, has 1,730,767 subscribers. Conter’s has 7,101.
The lawsuit mentions that Epic at first issued copyright complaints against both YouTubers to have videos stricken from their channel. Lucas also references the takedowns in this video from Sept. 22. The website the two sent viewers to, GoldenGodz.com, no longer has any products for sale.
Epic’s lawsuit alleges that both Lucas and Conter are cheaters who violate the terms of use in Fortnite and infringe on Epic’s copyrights, as well as “ruin the game-playing experience of players who do not cheat [...] violate universally understood notions of fair play, and diminish the integrity of the game.”
The lawsuit asks a judge to shut down Lucas and Colton’s activities and have all of their infringing videos and hacks turned over and destroyed. Monetary damages are also sought, but the nature of the complaint seems more aimed at stopping the cheating rather than recovering any money.
Lucas, in the Sept. 22 video, complained that Epic was singling him out for something several others were doing; if so, the Fortnite publisher may be trying to make an example of him to deter other cheaters or hack sellers.
