I'm no fan of zillion-dollar corporations using their boundless legal might to mercilessly imprison individuals who pirate software or act badly online. But I will admit to a certain schadenfreude when such individuals are forced to eat it in a public forum without having their whole lives destroyed. It's something Epic Games has made a little habit of, and it's done it again with a fellow named Isaac Strock, who recently hung his head and said sorry for stealing and selling Epic accounts.
Epic took action against Strock in February, claiming he "takes control of other players' Epic Games accounts through fraud," including by trying to fake out the Epic support team. Strock sold hundreds of stolen accounts through a channel on Telegram, Epic alleged, earning himself "thousands of dollars in profits" in the process.
All of that is a violation of Epic's EULA, of course, and after months of the legal process doing what it does, the now familiar outcome occurred: Strock ate it.
"I would like to apologize to the Fortnite community for wrongfully obtaining access to and selling Epic Games accounts that belonged to others," Strock wrote on X. "This is against Epic’s rules. Epic took legal action against me and I am banned from playing Fortnite again. I also have to pay a monetary settlement that Epic will donate to charity."
The message was posted by the X account Chucklin Ducklin, but Epic sent out a big ol' press blast to ensure everyone knew it happened, and who it happened to. Epic also reposted the message with a few words of its own, reminding everyone that stealing and selling accounts is not cool.
Epic didn't say how much Strock agreed to pay in the settlement, and I do hope it's not too much. I'm all for the ritual humiliation of cocky idiots, but hanging someone with a debt they can never pay is another matter entirely: That just sucks all the fun right out of it.
