[Joe Forster/STA]

And the CheatHappens bulldozer is still rolling in the background. We have received the following E-mail:

From chris(at)cheathappens(dot)com Sat May 22 04:13:26 2010
Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 21:11:54 -0500
From: Chris ORorke <chris(at)cheathappens(dot)com>
To: submit(at)gamecopyworld(dot)com, empire(at)gamecopyworld(dot)com, sta(at)c64(dot)org
Subject: h4x0r

Dear Empire/Joe,

I'm writing to inform you of pending litigation we have against Jose [...] (aka 'h4x0r'). This litigation will include GCW and FF as they are both primary hosts for Jose's infringing work and he has told us that GCW is to become his new homepage should sicheats.com be shutdown.

Over the past few months we have hired a private investigator to ascertain the personal information of 'h4x0r' so that legal measures could be taken after other forms of communication have failed. Going on nothing more than an online hacker name of 'h4x0r', our investigator was able to obtain his full name, DOB, address, personal ID#, place of employment, bank account information, income history and a complete list of all immediate family members. We compiled a 40 page document outlining all of the various infringements that Jose has made over the years against CH and have submitted this report to our lawyers in Spain and also to Spanish authorities. Our lawyers have issued a Cease and Desist order and dispatched it to Jose at his home and work and also to his sicheats.com web host. You will find a copy of this letter attached. In order to comply with the cease and desist, Jose would need to have his infringing trainers removed from third party sites such as GCW and FF. If he does not comply, our lawyers have been instructed to file a full lawsuit and press formal criminal charges against him as early as this coming week. Should it come to that, and GCW/FF is still voluntarily hosting his infringing files, it will be necessary to have our private investigator ascertain the private information of both 'Empire' and 'Joe Forster' so that you can be subpoenaed as witnesses to both the continued infringement and our multiple attempts to bring this issue to an amicable conclusion. Alternatively, should you decide to continue hosting Jose's work (and especially if you become his new 'homepage') then we will have no further recourse than to name GCW/FF as a co-defendant in our lawsuit as you are currently the primary distributor of his infringing files. We sincerely hope that it doesn't come to that.

This email is not meant to be a threat to you or your website in any way. I'm merely informing you of the circumstances so that you are not blind-sided should subpoenas show up at your home somewhere down the line. I'm also hoping you will take this opportunity to help Jose comply with the Cease and Desist and take GCW/FF out of the equation so that this is merely between us and him. We are not trying to attack or rid the world of free (or competing) trainers as some have speculated, we are merely trying to protect the hard work of our staff and others that might find themselves a victim of Jose's ongoing infringement. Someone has to take a stand at some point or it merely opens the door for this type of unlawful infringement to continue for years to come, not only against us, but against other talented programmers that are simply trying to make a little money from their work.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hope that this matter can be brought to a civil conclusion without having to drag it out into a courtroom battle.

----------------------
Chris O'Rorke ( <mailto:chris(at)cheathappens(dot)com>)
Co-Founder, Business Operations Manager
Cheat Happens.com - <http://www.cheathappens.com>

The attached PDF contains the following:

JOSE <...>
<address...>

POR BUROFAX / ACUSE DE RECIBO

Barcelona, May 12, 2010

N / Ref.: <...>

Dear Mr. <...>

We are writing you on behalf of Dingo WebWorks, LLC (U.S.). Our client is the owner of all the copyrights of the contents of the website www.cheathappens.com. Our client also owns the copyrights of the software and all the work contained on the website.

According to the documentation and materials provided by our client, on the website www.sicheats.com, -site of which you are owner, responsible and user- are taking place infringements of the intellectual property rights, which are an exclusive property of our client.

In this sense, our client has detected that many of the works that have been posted on the website www.sicheats.com and which have been created by you, acting under the nickname "H4X0R”, are identical and substantially similar to the software owned by our client, which is protected by the copyright law. This material has been unlawfully reproduced, processed, communicated, and made available to the public by yourself in the website www.sicheats.com and distributed online through torrents and different advertisements on different websites, including several sites of a pirate software; as an example we mention www.gamecopyworld.com. In particular, we are aware that you -either through your nickname, either through the website www.sicheats.com- have committed the following infringing acts:

1. The software of www.cheathappens.com, owned by Dingo WebWorks, LLC, was downloaded by you and was made available on the websites to be downloaded by others, violating the conditions and term services of www.cheathappens.com.

2. The software of www.cheathappens.com, owned by Dingo WebWorks, LLC, was downloaded and modified to hide the user identity, and then was made available for others on different websites by you, violating conditions and terms services of www.cheathappens.com.

3. As a result, the software of www.cheathappens.com, owned by Dingo WebWorks, LLC, was downloaded with your modifications by other users and then was altered to hide the identities of these users and it was linked to other websites to be downloaded by others in a violation of the conditions and terms services of www.cheathappens.com.

4. The software created by you is an illegal copy and alteration to the www.cheathappens.com software, property of our client, and illegally distributed by you.

5. The software created by you, is a copy of important functions, of the www.cheathappens.com software, property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, and has been illegally distributed by you.

6. The software of www.cheathappens.com, property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, was modified by you, in order to remove the copy protections and then was unlawfully made available to the public on your website www.sicheats.com, to be downloaded by by other.

7. The software created by you, copying the www.cheathappens.com software, property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, was made available to the public on the web www.sicheats.com, to be downloaded by other.

8. The illegal posting links to get illegal copies or cracked copies of the www.cheathappens.com software, property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, were made available to the public on your website www.sicheats.com.

9. The posting links to other websites, which are published different methods to try to crack
or remove the copy protection of www.cheathappens.com software, property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, was made available to the public in your website www.sicheats.com. Note that on this site are many links and software for hack others software, remove and modify their protections, in a violation of the terms services.

Consequently, the described acts constitute a violation of the copyrights of my client, recognized in the current copyright law, which gives to the author or legal holder, the exclusive rights of his work, in particular, the reproduction, distribution, public communication rights, which can not be used without an authorization. These actions may also constitute criminal conduct punishable by the criminal law as an intellectual property crime. Moreover, www.sicheats.com breaks the Law 34/2002,of the services of information society, in relation to the obligation to provide the person or corporate name, domicile orpermanent establishment in Spain of the webpage owner.

For this reason, it is clear that this acts produce serious damages to our client. Given the considerable damage suffered by our client because of the illegal exploitation of his rights, and in accordance with the applicable law, we formally require you that, in the limit time of 24 hours from the date of receipt this request, proceed to::

- Cease immediately and definitively the copy, distribution, public communication, diffusion, emission and all the exploitation acts of the software property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, and the diffusion of any infringing content of the page www. sicheats.com and any illegal copies of the software in any form or medium that reproduce, transmit or make available to the public or pose a illegal software exploitation and notify us in the compliance as they have done. This includes both software created by you, which is only mere copy of www.cheathappens.com software, property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, whose code was in whole or in part opened and manipulated: and any other software uploaded at www.sicheats.com that can constitute an infringement to our client’s rights.

- Refrain in the future to do any illegal exploitation of the software property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, protected by copyrights law, in www.sicheats.com or in any other website.

- Refrain to unlock or crack or remove shielding software devices, or any infringing act related with software property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC.

- Sign a statement to refrain in the future to publish or make available the links to illegal copies and distribution versions of the software property of Dingo WebWorks, LLC, protected by copyrights, without a written permission of Dingo WebWorks, LLC.

The expiration of the allowed time without having complying such a requirements will be understood by our client as a renounce of a friendly settlement, in which case our client reserves the right to take any action necessary to defend his legitimate interests, including the damages compensation. Our client also reserves the right to spread the commission of the alleged infringements committed by you according to all legal means and to all those persons and/or bodies that may have interest or may be affected by the infringement. We look forward to hear from you shortly and wait the acceptance of this requirement.

Yours sincerely

Sönke Lund

And a PNG... Is this supposed to prove that this guy is a real lawyer? Dunno...

And another E-mail.

Please, note that CheatHappens still doesn't understand that all of this correspondence is official from their side and, as such, should not be considered private. Also, they cannot possible expect us to keep it private after all what happened so far: the public needs to know every detail about their tactics and, even if we may not boast with millions of visitors, interesting rumors get very far very fast today.

We can't do anything about CheatHappens publishing h4x0r's personal details. We didn't do it as we were never allowed to. (And we didn't know anyway.) Not allowed to publish CheatHappens' messages either? See above. Also, have we published any personal information? Nope, only information that was sent to us. We never investigated where CheatHappens is located, who are working in it, along with all kinds of personal details. Actually, we don't give a fuck, that's why: what is important is what they're doing and how they're doing it. Hopefully, if this shit fires back to CheatHappens, this publishing of personal details will also be taken into account in a possible libel case against them. So, good luck!

If you drag game publishers into this then keep in mind that you're publishing trainers which are the results of reverse-engineering that is explicitly prohibited in most EULA's. You can be sure that we'll make notice about this in case we're interrogated. Let the fun begin!

From chris(at)cheathappens(dot)com Sun May 23 04:25:13 2010
Date: Sat, 22 May 2010 21:24:14 -0500
From: Chris ORorke <chris(at)cheathappens(dot)com>
To: submit(at)gamecopyworld(dot)com, empire(at)gamecopyworld(dot)com, sta(at)c64(dot)org
Subject: FYI

As expected, I see that you posted our private letter on the Fileforums
website. Since you removed some interesting pieces (ie: Jose's address), I
will be posting the complete version on our website, including Jose's
address and personal information. When he asks why his private information
was made public, I will send him in your direction.

Also, we will now ask our private investigator to obtain a full personal
profile on both Empire and Joe Forster. You can bet that we will grant you
the same courtesy that you have shown us in regard to the sharing of private
information with the public. The only difference is that I can put it on our
homepage and put it in front of over 10 million eyes per month.

It will be our pleasure to add GCW/FF (including you personally Joe) as
co-defendants in our pending lawsuit. Thank you for making it such an easy
decision.

BTW, once we obtain the private information of Empire, we will be sharing it
with the likes of Valve (and other game developers) which have expressed an
interest in becoming co-plaintiffs in our case seeing as how h4x0r has
damaged their multiplayer servers with his MP hacks. Perhaps they will find
other ways to use the information as well.

This will be my last attempt to communicate with you. You can monitor our
homepage and forums for more information about this case. You will also
receive your official subpoenas in the coming weeks.

----------------------

Chris O'Rorke ( <mailto:chris(at)cheathappens(dot)com>)
Co-Founder, Business Operations Manager
Cheat Happens.com - <http://www.cheathappens.com>