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News

Report: South Korean Government Cracks Down On Game Hacking

by Matt Miller on Dec 05, 2016 at 08:13 AM

A report from PVPLive offers some hope for both game companies and game players frustrated by the proliferation of programs that hack a game with aimbots, scripts, and other programs that interfere with a game’s normal functionality. The rules come through an amendment to an existing law that aims to promote the game industry in South Korea.

The report indicates that those who break this new law could face 5 years of jail time or as much as $43,000 in fines. The new South Korean law comes amid the use of numerous cheating and hacking problems for games in South Korea, particularly notable in games like Overwatch

The legal repercussions for hackers may also have positive effects for other players around the world, particularly in places where Korean cheaters are using a VPN to play on servers in other countries. 

[Source: PVPLive]

 

Our Take
Game hacks and online cheating have increasingly affected many players and games in recent years, making the online experience at times frustrating, and at other times unbearable. Any move by a government to limit that sort of cheating has the potential to be good news for the majority of game players who don’t use those programs in their games, not to mention the game companies that rely on strong, protected online communities for their livelihoods. Perhaps more importantly, this new tighter legal restriction in South Korea has the potential to be an example to other countries who are interested in crafting  limitations on hacking within their own legal frameworks.