Video game developer Epic Games is currently taking legal action against players who cheat on their free-to-play survival game "Fortnite." Lauren Rogers, mother of Caleb Rogers, recently issued a legal notice explaining why they should not move forward with filing a lawsuit against her son.
Lauren's argument first established that her son is a minor. Caleb is 14 years of age and is thus not yet legally emancipated. She pointed out that Epic Games' End-User License Agreement (EULA) for "Fortnite" created binding contracts only with those who are 18 years old and above.
Lauren also pointed out that the EULA for the survival game does not have an "age range drop-down menu," which could prompt minors to ask for parental consent to play the game. She added that she did not give parental consent.
Furthermore, Lauren thought it was not right to claim that Caleb is causing massive profit loss for Epic, since the game is free-to-play. The game relied on microtransactions for revenue, and Lauren made it clear that his son did not profit from streaming himself playing the game.
Meanwhile, in a statement given to The Verge, Epic Games claimed that they are not suing for the act of cheating itself. They are suing because of a "DMCA counterclaim to a takedown notice on a YouTube video that exposed and promoted 'Fortnite' Battle Royale cheats and exploits."
According to Epic, what happened is that they issued a DMCA takedown notice to Caleb's YouTube video, a video that promoted cheating. Caleb refused to take the video down, which left Epic Games no other choice, but to drop the claim or file a lawsuit.
Caleb is not the first individual who got a lawsuit from Epic Games due to cheating. In early October, the game developers filed a case against Brandon Bloom and Charles Vraspir for running a subscription-based cheating service for "Fortnite."
