Oct 17, 2023 09:00:00

'Genshin' sues cheat and private server operators for copyright infringement

The open world RPG '

Genshin ' is a very popular game with over 60 million monthly active players and can be played for free. 'Genshin' is a system where you can get characters and weapons as free items or 'gacha' by paying, but some users use 'unofficial private servers' to use most of the content for free, and It has been reported that the operating company has filed a lawsuit for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) .

Genshin Impact: Major Private Server Dev Faces DMCA Subpoenas * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/genshin-impact-major-private-server-dev-faces-dmca-subpoenas-231010/

Cognosphere, a subsidiary of miHoYo, known as the developer of 'Genshin', issued a DMCA subpoena in early December 2022 against an account called 'Ubatcha' that had repeatedly leaked scenarios and newly implemented characters. I applied. In January 2023, a Los Angeles law firm filed four DMCA subpoenas, all targeting Discord channels leaking Genshin content. In addition, they have taken an aggressive stance against online copyright violations, such as actively requesting deletion and disclosure of personal information through DMCA subpoenas.

On October 6, 2023, Cognosphere filed three new DMCA subpoenas in California district court. Each application claims that 'Cognosphere's copyright has been infringed by a third party and the service provider is required to hand over the personal information of the alleged infringer.'

One of them targets a software called 'Sweaty-Launcher' published by casksteven on GitHub. ``Sweaty-Launcher'' is software that allows ``Genshin'' users to access private servers. However, what is at issue in the DMCA subpoena is not ``Sweaty-Launcher'' itself, but the fact that the software's ``readme'' section includes artwork of ``Genshin''. 'We request immediate action to remove or disable access to the Works,' the DMCA subpoena states.

Cognosphere also filed a DMCA subpoena against a company that managed a domain associated with a private server called 'www.casks.me,' which also received more than 780,000 views. The offending infringement is not a private server, but four screenshots from the Genshin game. The image below is a copy salvaged from the archives of a site that was deleted by TorrentFreak, and has been mosaiced to avoid copyright infringement, but the description on the 'www.casks.me' site says 'Genshin'. You can see that it includes a screenshot of the login screen.

Furthermore, Cognosphere has also applied for a DMCA subpoena against Google, claiming that ``8 YouTube movies are suspected of infringing.'' 'The rights to the gameplay and audiovisual elements of Genshin are owned by Cognosphere,' the application and DMCA notice sent to YouTube states, but does not provide further details about the infringing content. It is unknown what kind of infringement the eight movies were infringing.

TorrentFreak said, ``It's questionable why they spend so much money specifically to protect in-game images,'' and added, ``It's clear that they are not identical copies of the original images.'' A lawsuit has also been filed against the images, and it is unclear what criteria Cognosphere uses to request disclosure or deletion.The trend so far has been to target private servers and users who engage in leaks. It appears that the lawsuit is not related to the image itself, but rather the image.'