Cheaters Beware!

Software license agreements can be very entertaining. Especially game software. Especially Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 2004 license agreement, a most recent copy of which can be seen here. It's a surprisingly good read, and happens to be a fairly non-restrictive license, granting rights to use stuff from earlier games to make mods for UT2k4. But looking at it today, during Corporate Counsel Seminar, I saw something that I swear I hadn't seen when I reinstalled my copy on my new PC this last week.

5. CHEATING. Nobody likes a cheater. It's a disgraceful way to earn a win and really is an insult to those players who earn their wins in on-line games the old-fashioned way—WITH TALENT. We're pretty hard on cheating in on-line games using the Software because it sullies the overall gaming experience and is JUST PLAIN LAME. With that in mind if you are caught cheating in an on-line game using the Software we will immediately and permanently ban your CD Key. At that point this License Agreement is automatically terminated and you must immediately delete this software from your PC. Failure to comply with this last bit (deleting the software) may bring on the wrath of the lawyers. Trust us…you don't want that.

That's pretty harsh, IMO, but then again, cheaters suck anyway. Skillz, baby!

UPDATE: I'm curious. I'm going to send this to the school's cyberlaw/copyright prof., and see if she thinks it would stand up in Court. Meanwhile, feel free to chime in. Do you think this is fair? Do you think it increases or decreases the value of the game?