If Tecmo has acquired a list of users, it remains to be seen whether they will begin a new round of lawsuits.However, the Judge in the case did take something of an easy way out, because the suit raised an awkward issue: do users who buy games (note: buy, not steal) have the right to modify them as they wish? By simply dismissing the case, the Judge missed the opportunity to discuss this issue. When asked whether the information had been made available to Tecmo, Glynn declined to answer. "I can tell you that my client would not have been inclined to reach any agreement that would have required him to pay money to Tecmo," said attorney Charles Mudd.Īn attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation states that although Tecmo insisted that Greiling and Glynn hand over NinjaHacker's user database to the company as part of any deal, he was unaware of whether or not the personal information of users uploading or downloading skins was part of the final settlement. Glynn confirmed in a telephone interview this week that he'd reached a settlement with Tecmo, but neither he nor his lawyer would elaborate on the details. The question of whether or not consumers have the right to modify video games they have legally purchased was not addressed by Tecmo or the judge presiding over the case.įederal Judge Charles Kocoras dismissed the case last Thursday, according to court records, with leave to reinstate it if the settlement is not finalized within 30 days. The user-created skins were installed voluntarily and on consoles that had been modified to allow custom code to run, and the suit, which was announced in February, did not accuse any of the defendants of pirating the games. trademark and copyright laws, federal and state prohibitions on unfair competition, and the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The suit, which also named up to 100 anonymous users of the site, charged that the hacks violated U.S. NinjaHacker's webmaster, Mike Greiling, and Will Glynn, who provided Greiling with hosting services, were the main defendants and have reportedly settled with Tecmo.
In the most (in)famous example, the scantily-clad women of its Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball game were rendered completely nude. A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Tecmo against, a fan site where users who had reverse-engineered the company's XBox titles shared custom skins that changed the appearance of characters.
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