In a significant escalation of the ongoing war against software piracy, anti-tamper technology provider Denuvo GmbH has launched unprecedented legal action against an anonymous individual known as "voices38." Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit marks the first time the Austrian-headquartered company has directly sued a software cracker in a United States court. The complaint accuses the pseudonymous hacker of systematically bypassing its robust Anti-Tamper security measures across a vast catalog of popular video games, targeting the digital locks designed to protect major publishers from immediate unauthorized distribution.
The legal confrontation follows a turbulent year for the anti-piracy industry. Earlier this year, the digital rights management landscape was rattled by a wave of hypervisor bypasses that allowed digital pirates to effectively "crack" Denuvo-protected video games on their very day of release. While those sophisticated bypasses created massive headaches for Irdeto, Denuvo’s parent company, they were not the only vector threatening the firm’s commercial dominance. For a segment of the gaming community preferring a less invasive approach—one that does not require disabling critical Windows security features—traditional, old-school software cracks remained deeply attractive.
Stepping into this demand, an anonymous online figure operating under the handle "voices38" accelerated their output significantly over the summer months. The community-focused cracker specialized in patching Denuvo’s verification checks directly, releasing a steady stream of modified game executables. The momentum culminated earlier this month when voices38 managed to push out five separate Denuvo game releases in a single day. This prolific output inevitably drew the intense scrutiny of developers, publishers, and Denuvo’s own security teams at corporate headquarters.
Denuvo Takes ‘voices38’ to Court
According to the legal complaint obtained by TorrentFreak, Denuvo GmbH is arguing that the actions of the individual using the voices38 handle constitute a direct violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions. The lawsuit details how the defendant systematically targeted the protection mechanisms of 26 distinct video game titles, spanning a wide chronological range from older catalog releases to modern, high-profile blockbusters.
The targeted lineup cited in the legal filings includes older titles such as FIFA 20 and PES 2020, alongside heavy-hitting recent releases and anticipated blockbusters like Hogwarts Legacy, Black Myth: Wukong, Resident Evil Requiem, and Doom: The Dark Ages.
"Defendant is a computer hacker who is focused on reverse engineering, hacking, or ‘cracking’ video games employing Denuvo’s Anti-Tamper product," Denuvo states in the complaint, pointing to platforms like Reddit as primary channels where the cracks were disseminated to the public. The company further elaborates that the defendant has effectively bypassed digital rights management restrictions in copyrighted works, stripping away the technological measures that allow copyright owners to control access to their intellectual property, thereby facilitating widespread copyright infringement across the internet.
Circumvention, Not Copyright Infringement
A notable nuance of the legal strategy is that Denuvo does not actually own the underlying copyrights to any of the video games impacted by the cracks. Because Denuvo functions as a security vendor rather than a game publisher or developer, the company lacks the standing to sue voices38 for traditional copyright infringement—a legal avenue typically reserved for the game companies themselves, such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Sony.
Instead, Denuvo’s complaint relies entirely on the anti-circumvention provisions outlined in the DMCA. Under this specific section of United States copyright law, it is strictly prohibited to bypass any technological measure or digital lock that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work. Furthermore, the statute forbids the distribution of tools, patches, or instructions that assist others in circumventing these protective barriers.
The DMCA explicitly provides that any entity harmed by such circumventions has the legal standing to initiate a civil lawsuit. Denuvo argues that because its entire global business model is built on selling tamper-protection technology to major gaming publishers—including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Capcom, Sega, and others—the unauthorized release of these bypasses directly damages its commercial reputation, devalues its software offerings, and inflicts severe financial harm on its operations.
As far as legal experts and industry observers are aware, this represents the first instance where Denuvo has chosen to directly pursue a cracker through the U.S. court system. While the official complaint meticulously lists numerous game titles along with their respective publisher corporations, none of those rightsholders are formally listed as plaintiffs in the current lawsuit.
Reddit User, Steam Accounts and a Discord ID
The most formidable obstacle facing Denuvo’s legal team is the absolute anonymity of the defendant. The court filing officially designates the accused party as "an unknown individual or entity," accompanied by ten placeholder Doe defendants, reflecting the reality that investigators do not yet know the true identity, legal name, or physical location of the person behind the screen.
Even so, Denuvo’s legal and technical teams have conducted extensive preliminary investigations. The court filing identifies a specific Discord user ID, a Reddit account used for community announcements and release notifications, and seven distinct Steam profiles that the company believes are intrinsically linked to the operations of the cracker.
By tying these online identifiers to the case, Denuvo hopes to unmask the individual through subsequent legal discovery. Modern digital platforms present unique vulnerabilities for pseudonymous actors; video games must generally be purchased legitimately before they can be reverse-engineered and cracked, and commercial transactions on platforms like Steam invariably leave behind a trail of payment details, credit card authorizations, and billing addresses.
With the formal case now active on the federal docket, Denuvo possesses the legal framework required to petition the court for formal permission to issue subpoenas to major technology platforms, including Valve, Reddit, and Discord. These subpoenas would compel the companies to surrender all associated account data, internal logs, and communication records linked to the flagged profiles. Although formal discovery requests have not yet appeared on the court docket, legal analysts expect them to be filed in the near future.
The comprehensive complaint outlines two distinct DMCA anti-circumvention claims, seeking monetary damages alongside a permanent injunction. If granted, an injunction would legally bar voices38 from circumventing Denuvo’s Anti-Tamper protection systems across any existing video game titles, as well as any future software products that have yet to be developed or released to the public.
This forward-looking restriction may prove crucial for the anti-piracy firm, given the fast-paced nature of the cracking scene. Indeed, the list of 26 games included in the original filing was already outdated by the time the complaint was formally submitted to the court. In the weeks leading up to and immediately following the legal action, voices38 continued to distribute fresh software cracks, successfully targeting newly released titles such as Persona 3 Reload and Star Wars Outlaws.
What’s Next
Whether Denuvo will ultimately succeed in identifying the human being behind the voices38 handle remains an open question. Experienced software crackers routinely employ operational security measures, VPNs, and pseudonymous financial instruments to shield their real-world identities from corporate investigators and law enforcement agencies.
However, legal experts note that even if the upcoming subpoenas fail to uncover the true identity of the defendant, pursuing the lawsuit is not an empty exercise. If Denuvo manages to secure a default judgment coupled with a permanent injunction, the company gains powerful administrative leverage. Such a ruling would significantly streamline the process of having mirror download links, discussion threads, and associated social media accounts forcefully removed from internet service providers and web platforms.
Furthermore, a definitive legal ruling in Denuvo’s favor would establish a powerful deterrent precedent across the digital underground. Confirmation that Denuvo possesses the willingness and legal capability to sue software crackers directly in Western courts could easily cause other prominent figures in the scene to reconsider their activities.
For the time being, the federal lawsuit remains in its preliminary stages. Observers will be watching closely to see what specific information Denuvo demands from Reddit, Discord, and Valve, and whether the enigmatic figure known as voices38 will ultimately choose to make an appearance in court to contest the allegations.
Responding publicly to the unfolding legal news, the anonymous cracker appeared unfazed, sharing a brief and casual message on Reddit: "All is fine. Everything will continue as normal."
A complete copy of Denuvo’s legal complaint against voices38, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, has been made publicly available through legal tracking archives.
The 26 games explicitly cited in Denuvo’s federal complaint, alongside their respective publishers, include:
- Need for Speed Heat (Electronic Arts)
- EA Sports FIFA 20 (Electronic Arts)
- Star Wars: Squadrons (Electronic Arts)
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered (Electronic Arts)
- EA Sports FIFA 21 (Electronic Arts)
- Hi-Fi Rush (Bethesda)
- F1 2021 (Electronic Arts)
- Dead Space Remastered (Electronic Arts)
- Doom: The Dark Ages (Bethesda)
- Mafia: The Old Country (2K Games)
- LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (WB Games)
- Hogwarts Legacy (WB Games)
- Total War: Three Kingdoms (SEGA)
- Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Ubisoft)
- Shining Resonance Refrain (SEGA)
- PES 2020 (Konami)
- Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster (SEGA)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Ubisoft)
- Anno 1800 (Ubisoft)
- Sonic Frontiers (SEGA)
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ubisoft)
- Pragmata (Capcom)
- Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)
- Black Myth Wukong (Game Science)
- Stellar Blade (Sony)
- 007 First Light (IO Interactive)
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