Blizzard is taking legal action against a group of StarCraft II players who created a set of cheats and hacks for the real-time strategy game.
First spotted by TorrentFreak, Blizzard filed papers in a California court on May 19th alleging that an unidentified group of programmers infringed on the publisher's StarCraft II copyright with a series of cheats and in-game exploits collectively known as the "ValiantChaos MapHack." Designed to give StarCraft II players any number of competitive advantages when playing the game online, the MapHack was made available online through the ValiantChaos forum—provided that forum members paid $62.50 for access to its VIP section.
Blizzard's court filings don't identify the defendants involved in the case, only referring to the ValiantChaos forum. The complaint notes that "the true names and capacities, whether individual, corporate, associate, or otherwise, of defendants" are "unknown to Blizzard." The full extent of the hacking in question isn't specified either.
The complaint Blizzard filed says that the company is taking action against the programmers in order to "protect the sanctity of the StarCraft II experience" against "hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software" that undermines the competition central to the game's online multiplayer.
The complaint argues that "the hacks and cheats made available by Defendants, including a product known as the 'ValiantChaos MapHack', modify the StarCraft II online game experience, to the detriment of legitimate StarCraft II users, and thus to Blizzard itself."
When asked for comment on the lawsuit, a Blizzard representative told me in an emailed statement that the company doesn't "typically [...] comment on pending litigation."
"However, we can say that the quality of our games is our top priority, and we will take the necessary measures, up to and including legal action, to protect our games against cheating and other negative influences," the Blizzard representative added.
Read the full complaint below.
To contact the author of this post, write to yannick.lejacq@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq.