Sony is taking legal action against the people who downloaded the Marvel’s Wolverine build.
As shared on Twitter by TigerCA123, Sony is now sending out DMCA strikes against anyone who is playing the build.
For those who are not in the know, this early version of Marvel’s Wolverine leaked as part of the ransomware leak Rhysida perpetrated vs developer Insomniac. We won’t get into any of the actual leaked information here, but if you need to know more, you can read about it here.
We are now discussing the consequences of the leaks, and to do that we do have to explain how the build got out into the wild. Rhysida didn’t get paid the ransom, so they shared a link on their servers to allow anyone interested to download the ransomed data. Of course, being hackers themselves, they covered up their tracks so that authorities would not be able to track down where Rhysida is located, and for that matter, who downloaded that data, including the build.
But Rhysida also didn’t warn those potential downloaders about the consequences of taking and using those files. As it turns out, the build of Marvel’s Wolverine connects back to Insomniac’s servers whenever it is played. While Insomniac wasn’t able to protect these files, they remembered to place other safeguards on it.
So what’s happening here is the people who played the build for themselves unwittingly shared their location and other data to Insomniac. Sony has then been notifying those people that playing the build violates DMCA law regarding copyright.
As to whether this could lead to real lawsuits and/or arrests for the people who played this build, it isn’t clear. To be clear; Sony and Insomniac are well enabled by DMCA to go after those people if they wish. But they could choose not to pursue legal action for several reasons. For example, they may decide it isn’t worth the money to spend on it. They may also have considered that it’s mostly their own fans who did it. Alternately, they may use this technology to go after Rhysida.
Obviously, if Sony pursues litigation, it will be an unhappy time for those people who did play it; as doing so is literally illegal. It isn’t clear if being identified as gaming press, including the people who work in the bigger video game news media, would afford them enough protection from this.
But it also points to something else; the uncomfortable truth that when Sony decided not to pay the ransom, they knew exactly what information people could find. They knew their struggles with profits for their expensive games would come out, their plans to fire employees at Insomniac and other studios, and other unsavory information to put them at a bad light. And they still let it happen.
Perhaps Sony made the calculation that they could work out any PR fallout to come from this. Or, they decided their brand is popular and beloved enough that they could weather it. It’s also possible Sony just drew a line at not negotiating with thieves.
In any case, we know Sony isn’t just sitting on the sidelines for this one. We just aren’t seeing what actions the company is doing behind the scenes. Even if Sony doesn’t address the public regarding this hack, we may feel their hands taking action in the coming months in response to it, well into the next year. It certainly feels like we will be talking about the Insomniac hack for weeks to come, if not months.
