Anti-piracy firm Denuvo is escalating its legal battle against the anonymous software modifier known as "voices38." In a recent filing at a California federal court, the company requested permission to issue subpoenas to major digital platforms—including Discord, Valve, and Reddit—in a bid to uncover the true identity behind the pseudonym. The legal move follows an earlier Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anti-circumvention lawsuit filed last month, which targeted the individual for allegedly bypassing Denuvo’s controversial anti-tamper digital rights management (DRM) software across nearly three dozen high-profile video games.
The lawsuit, initiated by the Irdeto-owned security firm, currently targets an unknown defendant. While the initial legal complaint explicitly cited a specific Discord user ID, a Reddit account, and seven distinct Steam profiles, it lacked a legal name or physical address for the person operating them. To advance the litigation before moving into the standard discovery phase, Denuvo is now asking the federal court for leave to serve expedited, targeted discovery requests directly on the platform operators.
According to court documents submitted by Denuvo’s legal representation, the company attempted to acquire the necessary account information through direct inquiries prior to filing the motion. Those informal efforts were unsuccessful. Representatives for Valve and Reddit reportedly informed Denuvo that their respective corporate privacy policies and internal user data protection guidelines prohibit the voluntary release of account holder information without a formal, binding legal order. Meanwhile, Discord allegedly did not respond to the company’s inquiries. Consequently, securing a court-ordered subpoena became the necessary next step to progress the litigation.
In its ex parte motion, Denuvo explains that the scope of the requested discovery is narrowly tailored to establish jurisdictional facts and defendant identification. The proposed subpoenas outline extensive data requests tailored to each platform. For Valve, the anti-piracy firm is asking the court to compel the corporation to hand over complete registration data, legal names, and billing addresses associated with the seven Steam user profiles listed in the complaint. Furthermore, the requests cover linked accounts, device identifiers, IP addresses with corresponding timestamps, and detailed payment methods and transaction histories.
Among the Steam profiles highlighted in the legal filings, one notably utilizes the name "Enzo Favara," a character identity drawn from Mafia: The Old Country. That particular title is among the 26 video games that Denuvo accuses voices38 of successfully cracking. Other titles cited in the broader copyright litigation include major commercial releases like Hogwarts Legacy and Black Myth: Wukong. Although the seven Steam profiles identified by Denuvo display relatively low activity levels on the surface, the company asserts that they are intrinsically tied to the coordinated cracking and distribution efforts orchestrated under the voices38 moniker.
The proposed subpoenas directed at Discord and Reddit similarly seek granular digital footprints. For Discord, the motion asks the court to require the communication platform to disclose the specific servers of which the targeted user account is a member, alongside any administrative or specialized roles assigned within those communities. For Reddit, Denuvo has requested an exhaustive compilation of all public posts and comments authored by the voices38 account, as well as a full accounting of the subreddits the account maintains memberships in.
Beyond the platform-specific data requests, the newly unsealed legal filings shed light on broader investigative measures pursued by Denuvo outside of traditional gaming and community networks. In a formal declaration submitted alongside the motion for expedited discovery, attorney Ryan Morris revealed that Denuvo’s private investigators successfully uncovered cryptocurrency transactions linked to the cracker through the instant crypto exchange service FixedFloat. According to the court filing, these digital asset transactions involved prominent cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
While the declaration explicitly identifies the cryptocurrency exchange and the types of digital coins involved, it does not detail the specific blockchain tracing methodologies Denuvo utilized to associate those wallet activities with the handles used by voices38. Furthermore, the court documents do not clarify whether the traced crypto transactions ultimately yield definitive clues regarding the legal identity or geographic location of the individual operating the accounts. FixedFloat is widely known as an automated, instant cryptocurrency exchange that markets its services around user convenience, emphasizing a hassle-free operational model that does not require mandatory user registration or the submission of extensive personal identification details. Despite bringing the FixedFloat transactions to the attention of the court, Denuvo has not formally requested a subpoena directed at the crypto exchange at this stage of the proceedings.
The decision on whether Denuvo will be permitted to serve these expedited subpoenas now rests entirely in the hands of U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., who will review the ex parte motion and determine if good cause has been shown to warrant early discovery.
In the weeks since the initial lawsuit became public, the legal action has already triggered noticeable ripple effects across the digital piracy and game-modifying ecosystem. Late last month, industry reports indicated that "DenuvOwO"—a prominent community group that specialized in releasing hypervisor bypasses and workarounds for games protected by Denuvo’s DRM software—opted to disband entirely. Individuals close to the group reportedly cited the sudden escalation of legal pressure from Irdeto as a primary source of concern. In response to the shifting legal landscape, major community hubs such as the CS.Rin forum quickly moved to purge links associated with the group’s bypass releases to mitigate potential liability.
The primary target of the lawsuit appeared unfazed when the legal complaint was first made public. Shortly after news of the federal action broke across gaming media outlets, the user behind the handle voices38 posted a brief message on Reddit downplaying the significance of the filing, writing that "All is fine. Everything will continue as normal."
However, in the time since that statement was published online, no new software cracks or circumvention tools bearing the voices38 handle have been distributed. Whether this quiet period is a direct consequence of the ongoing legal pressure or merely coincidental remains unverified.
A complete copy of Denuvo’s ex parte motion for expedited discovery has been made publicly available through court documentation records.
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