Cheat Engine

[Zarathos]

I finally completed my little cheating tool (also thanks to the help of this great community) and now I would like to get some money out of that hard work selling it online.

I never sold a cheating tool before, so I have absolutely no experience and I don't know what reactions I could expect from the developers of the game. I'm sure there are some persons on this forum that did that, so I would be very pleased to listen to your opinion and suggestions.

Here are some technical details about the game and my tool:
1) I live in a european country and the company that develops the game is located in another european country.
2) The game is a classic Facebook pay-per-win flash application that ask you for real money every time you click somewhere in the client area.
3) The cheat I'm exploiting exists since 2011 with little to no variations and I'm just hardcoding what everybody could do using Cheat Engine (there are plenty of websites that teach people how to cheat that game with it).
4) My tool only modifies the browser process memory using ReadProcessMemory and WriteProcessMemory API calls. No files are modified (like you can sometimes do using Fiddler to replace the server files with your own files) or ripped, no TOS are broken (I'm not even sure whether the game has a public TOS or not) and no database/server hacking is made.
5) I would like to distribute my cheating tool though a website in which people can purchase it for a small amount of money (let's say, 3 USD) using PayPal. A software copy with a single user license would then be delivered to the customer mailbox once I receive the payment notification.

My main questions are:
1) Can I be legally pursued for selling such a game cheating tool?
2) Should I try to stay as anonymous as possible (PayPal account credentials, domain hosting credentials, anonymous prepaid credit card, ...)?
3) What kind of reactions should I expect from the game developers? How should I deal with?
4) It's better to use the donation approach or the purchase approach to sell my tool?

I would be really great to receive any concrete advice about this situation!

[daspamer]

I'm doing it for good and long (Facebook games too).

1. Not that I heard anyone sued. (Well atleast not for tools that modify PC memory, I heard only 1 guy, for editing the .SWF (Client File), and re-uploading, which breaks copy-right rules, but what we're doing don't violate it =) )
2. Yes you should keep it anonymous, I didn't kept it, didn't care enough
3. They might contact you, they might patch it, or they might not care.
4. Users probably would like the use-and-maybe-donate rather then pay-to-use, but trust me, maybe 1/100 users would actually donate! so stay with pay-to-use.

You can try in my website ( Check signature ).
Also if devs didn't do anything about the cheat engine possibilities, I got a high doubt they will do anything about your tool.

Also you should connect it to database, and give each customer a key, and check IPs of who's logging and what key they used.
Because if you want to sell it, once its shared, it will get to public for free too, If you don't mind, don't .

[Dark Byte]

check out wow glider or the people that made a no-fog cheat for starcraft 2.

anyhow, my personal stance on selling game hacks is that you're creating a derivative work of an existing Intellectual Property(IP) which means that what you make belongs to the owner of the IP
They can then decide to get all the money you made from selling the trainer or worse

It of course depends on the maker. Blizzard for example is more inclined to act like a retarded douchebag as opposed to a indy game developer

Another 'semi related' thing about IP crap that came up recently: Screenshots and video game playthroughs also belong to the IP owner as Nintendo has recently shown by claiming monetizing right and revenue on all nintendo game playthroughs on youtube

[daspamer]

Wait wait wait,
All these trainers that are made&posted belong to the game creators?
While actually you're just editing your PC memory?

[SinStar87]

You are surprised at that?

I wonder if they take claim of them if Dark Byte can then sue for profits since his program is used.

And a differed note on IP logic, someone can go to the library and get pretty much any movie they like for free, if they don't have it they'll even have it shipped from another branch. But if the person finds it online it's illegal and punishable by imprisonment and fines.

[daspamer]

Fuck logic.

[SinStar87]

I think that's the whole point of IP laws actually.

[Zarathos]

[daspamer]

[atom0s]

[++METHOS]

I agree with Wiccaan 100%.

I'd also add that the membership site have an educational focus and be treated as such with any/all necessary disclaimers and credits given. Hosting your site in a foreign country with no known copyright laws probably couldn't hurt. If you can find someone you trust residing in a country with no extradition treaties between all associated countries, that would allow you to operate behind the scenes with no ties to the company would be even better. Hiding financials might prove difficult.

It's all overkill unless they can prove that your work has impacted their earnings negatively. That's when things become more serious and require additional protection measures. Simple violation of copyright would require sufficient notice and ample time for removal etc. for US-based compliance and proving your tools impacted earnings negatively might be difficult to substantiate for most games.

One might also argue that, as long as your tool is not designed, in any way, for illegal purposes, then is should be treated as such - a tool. Such as a computer is a tool, and anyone that uses that tool for illegal purposes is liable...not the computer manufacturer etc.

Nonetheless, it is not advised for online, multi-player games.

Single-player, offline games would be hard to enforce unless there is obvious copyright infringement (such as a copyrighted image in the trainer GUI). Assembly code is a language and can not be protected as such. Showing credit for trademark titles and the like might also be necessary, but easily managed.

This is only my basic understanding on the matter and should only be deemed as opinion.

[daspamer]

You're taking way so far than I ever though or took D:.
If problems occur, just drop the project, and end of the story.
I've been doing something like this for more than 7-8 months.
Never had any troubles/stuff with mad devs (except a MMO dev, made a hack for myself for fun, and he contacted me about it in order to patch it, so I helped him, and the game is way secure than it was.)

[atom0s]

[daspamer]

@Wiccaan,
The facebook games devs aren't Blizzard or any other famous and well played, FB games devs won't do anything that's for sure, especially when theres exploit for couple of months/years.

[Caliber]

i'll keep this short and sweet. I don't know the laws of other countries. in USA we sell trainers every day. there is legal precedent here that we can legally make 'trainers' and 'modifications' to our own software on our own machine. however, if you are making software that affects LEGITIMATE MONEY TRANSACTIONS or ONLINE INTERACTIVITY, the legal hand moves the other way and you can very much so be held liable for damages. blizzard came down hard on multiple groups for this and won. they are still in legal tussles in Europe with the peeps from honorbuddy.

my suggestion is that if real money is being given or taken away from software of any kind, you are putting yourself in jeopardy creating software that manipulates the fair and normal functioning of the original software. likewise, if you are manipulating online functioning software such that it impairs or infairly affects other users, you are going to run into trouble.

basically you are using software to steal from others or diminish the fairness or overall fair use of a software. if it isn't ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER for your OWN PERSONAL USE then that is when you get into shark infested legal waters.

my 2 cents..

caliber

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